


The elements

by DevilsLegion



Category: None - Fandom, Space Travel - Fandom
Genre: #Firsttimedoingthis #Action #nocluewhattoput #Fantasy #Occasinaltimetravel, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-13
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:27:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 37,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29399058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevilsLegion/pseuds/DevilsLegion
Summary: This is a book currently being worked on by my best friend who has given me permission to share with everyone here I hope yall will like it





	1. Beginning of the end

**Author's Note:**

> This is a book currently being worked on by my best friend who has given me permission to share with everyone here I hope yall will like it

Earth, such a small primitive planet, at least in my opinion, you may know the norm as everyday life living day by day. The adults get up early, go to work, come home to eat dinner, repeat, the kids do the same just with a thing called school. Have fun with friends and family, throw parties for fun or to celebrate an occasion. Get everyday necessities to sustain this normal life, it all sounds familiar and pretty normal right?, but you have yet to see the true horrors of this world as it will come to light in this story. Now this story, my story, our story, it ends pretty horribly, I’d know, now you'd think I'd be starting with a happy story so I don't scare you off easily right? But why lie.

Now I'm not the average normal person, I am, well used to be considered a superhero, but the superhero saves the day, I haven't. At least not yet, before this world knew I had powers I was a normal guy, I had just turned 20, life was great. I was a somewhat fit guy, pale, red eyes, long black hair, obsessed with wearing trench coats, always wore a black one over my dark red t-shirt and jeans. Simple guy, simple wardrobe, simple life, until my powers hit. That's when I found out, in order but not at the same time, that not only was I not normal, I wasn't the only one, and this also wasn't my first life, it was in fact my last, of many, but we'll get to that.

This story sorta comes to an end as I'm laying on the rubble of this world bleeding out next to the woman I love, Jane Lumarah, beautiful, not pale like me however, more of an average white skinned woman with long black hair which went down to her knees with about 3 inches of yellow highlights at the end, always wore a black t-shirt over a long sleeve yellow shirt with jeans, and on occasion she wore this fancy yellow leather jacket that kinda made her look like she was wearing half of a superhero's costume from a comic or something, another previously simple life, with a simple wardrobe, until the big 20 years hit, did I mention how beautiful she is already? Always had a hard time not looking at her beautiful gray eyes, they had a beautifully hypnotizing look to them. 

I could hear the sound of weapons clashing somewhere off to the left of my position, as I looked over all the fire and rubble that used to be buildings, everything looked like several nukes rained down everywhere, I finally laid eyes on the cause of all our pain. The dark being, it looked like the grim reaper, battling what looked like a mirror image of himself, well sort of, the reaper had a scythe that was giving off major dark aura, while the other one looked as if it was made of ice, plus the one with the ice scythe had these weird horns coming out of the reaper cloak on its head, shoulders and some of its back, they also looked to be made of ice. in between his strikes i noticed the ice reaper was wearing some kind of armor under the cloak, they were fighting brutally I could tell there was a vengeful rage to this, ice reapers fighting. 

As I looked up I could see these black creatures flying around, I looked closer I noticed they were fighting one of their own, a girl in a black and blood red trench coat, with some armor plating weaved in on her coat and pants. She had this weird energy shield with a creepy shaped V on it in her left hand using it to block the others attacks and a teched out revolver that shot these weird laser bullets in the other hand. There were other battles going on in the distance but I couldn't make out what they were, I looked back at Jane and saw her worried look, I just put my hand on her cheek and smiled at her. Now you may be asking how is he gonna save the day? didn't he say he hadn't yet? and he's bleeding out probably gonna die, right? Well I'll get to that, but to understand how it all ends and why it ends how it does, you have to first understand how it all began. I remember it all as if it was just yesterday.

When this all started life was as great as can get, it's funny really, all tragic endings have an unbelievably great start. Standing by the big window in the room, looking out below at the villages, people talking, laughing, exchanging gifts, the kids running around playing in the ashes that fell like crazy around this time of the year. Everything was peaceful, great, just like every year, but this year was something special, my best friend and his wife, which also happens to be Jane’s sister, were coming to visit us and our new family member. I could see my reflection in the stained glass. I had short wavy black hair, glowing red eyes, red reptilian like skin, wearing a fancy suit like that of kings, with of course a long trench coat, and a pendant with the rebirth symbol on it which basically looks like a serpent shaped dragon in a coiled up position making a weird spiral but at the same time also a circle.

It was given to both me and Jane by the alliance to ensure we stay together even after death by sharing my ability to be reborn. I also had a wicked cool black and silver greatsword strapped to my back. Now I know what you're thinking, earlier he was normal with human skin, well long story short this is the beginning, I am reborn every time I die, and everyone in this story was once human in history after branching out and evolving, but that's another story for another time. As for how I ended up on earth, well you'll have to stick around to find out. 

“John, you look lost love, what's wrong?” said the most beautiful voice in the world. I snapped back into reality, smiled and turned to see my beautiful wife, Jane, looking at me. Just like me, she looked different in the beginning too, she was wearing a fancy black and yellow dress, also wearing the same pendant, had pale skin but not like vampire pale, she had a light to her, her skin glowed with her power making it more like a fluorescent grey, her hair glowed with the same light as the rest of her, she had very hypnotically beautiful gray eyes, and she had a neat looking whip attached to her belt.  
She was holding a 2 year old baby in her arms, our little handsome boy, James. He had his mother's skin, but my eyes, and that seemed to trouble the alliance since he's the first baby to be born from two different “alien breeds” which could make him either powerless, or have both our powers. “No love, just admiring the people, it's lovely to see everyone so happy as always” I replied, She smiled “well it's all because of you, John you're not ruling like your father did. You're doing it better, the right way” she said as I put my arm around her, “cause of us Jane, I may be doing things differently but us falling in love getting along with one another, brought our worlds together, the war our parents raged on one another was put to an end cause of us” I said, she blushed at the sound of that, and I just couldn't get over how cute that is, never gets old. I shook my head to snap back into reality and said “we should get going love, Chris and Sarah are coming over this year” she looked at me with a half smile “isn't it weird to you that your best friend married my sister?” she asked. I smiled “well.. technically, they married first so.. if anything I'm the weirdo who married my best friend's wife's sister” I said as she just looked at me with a serious face. 

I laughed and began to respond when I was interrupted by the sound of multiple loud explosions, we looked at each-other in shock and ran back to the window, my friend Chris's ship was entering the atmosphere, on fire and falling fast. It was falling apart as it fell, then I saw two figures fall out of a hole that was created on the side of the ship due to it falling apart, I could tell one was beating the hell out of the other, I smiled, that was more than likely Chris dealing with the intruders. Then I saw this other figure slide down on a stream of water that came out of nowhere. Sarah, it had to be, seeing as she’s the only one capable of creating water in a world without water, there were more jumping after them, but they just fell straight through the water, I always loved seeing them fight I had almost forgotten that they were in trouble but then I heard this eerie sound come from the sky. 

That’s when I saw them, speeding behind the falling ship, a couple of dark ships, they looked like giant insects. The best description I could give is imagining a giant wasp, all slick black, wings that look like dark webbing which was hard to tell if it was moving like an actual wasp or just vibrating due to extremely fast and advanced engines. The engine made an eerie sound as it swooped by and went around for another strike, but this time being pursued by guard ships from both mine and Jane's races. all the guard ships look alike, they have the same design just different colors, there were two kinds of guard ships, the strikers and defenders. Defenders had more protection allowing them to take more hits, and their weaponry was strictly defence and medical, they had side turrets that projected shields and guns that acted like grenade launchers but instead of grenades they launched fixer bots that repaired ships and if necessary were capable of self defence. strikers were made with an arsenal of weapons, but weak defence systems, for every deployed striker they are accompanied by two defenders, teams of three in unison if one messed up all three would be in danger. I gave her one look and she nodded “go, we'll be fine.” 

I kissed her and James, I took one look back and for a second I could have sworn I saw, well, myself outside looking in, but, I don't know, he had my eyes but pale skin, like that of the ancient ones of our past who originated, or rather taken, from the human world. He looked burned, injured, and one of his eyes looked like it was blinded. I shook my head thinking I was just worried and going insane then ran out of the castle towards the downed royal ship. I could hear the insect like ships zooming by and firing at its pursuers, even its fire sounded wrong, almost like it was alive, I began to notice it drop containers every now and then. They almost looked like organic yet machine like eggs, for a second, it looked like our ships were scaring them off but the second they left orbit a crap load of weird rhombus shaped ships flew in and as they approached the ship, the pointy side that was facing the targeted ship split open like tentacles as they wrapped itself around the ship, in seconds it was crushed then it just flew off to another ship and did the same.

As I made my way to the ship I started to feel hopeless, they came in undetected and it looks like our defenses are gonna be gone in a couple of minutes, I kept going anyways, along the path I saw this creature breaking through buildings, making its way towards the castle. It seemed to be taking out everyone in its path, it was horrifying, it breathed this blackish fire which temperature did nothing to the people but it seemed to suffocate them and turn them into rotting corpses, it was speeding their aging. It looked like a dragon, but they became extinct during my dad's rule, it looked like a dragon that had been consumed by darkness, but the strange thing was that it looked like there was someone on top of it.

I heard this eerie laughter as I kept running towards the ship, once I got to one of the bigger fragments of the ship I gasped in horror, it was a horrific sight. There was a huge hole on one side, the guards were fighting these weird insect like creatures, they had such dark aura like they were made of pure dark energy. You could clearly see armor of some kind under all the darkness, almost metallic, it looked almost like semi-compressed gas, they had shape, but not enough to see a face or anything definite. I saw it drop two guards at once which for Chris's guards, it's bad, considering it's hard to drop one without the help of 12 people, it began to eat them like a zombie. 

Feasting on their energy as their lifeless bodies start to change and grow darker. I kept running about to lose hope of finding them alive till I heard a loud thump and saw two of those creatures fly by me followed by a giant spray of water that came up from the ground right in front of me. The water knocked me back a bit as it tossed them up into the atmosphere. I got a big smile as I got up and ran in the direction of where the creatures were thrown out into the open before being blasted to hell. 

There they were, I was relieved to see them alive, Chris, a bit taller than me, built like a brute and had scaly skin that looked like it was made of rocks, he was wearing those special pants made for him by the alliance. Since he's pretty much the embodiment of earth, he can get exponentially bigger and stronger and well it's not at all attractive to fight beside a man that loses his clothes when he gets stronger, unless you’re into that sort of thing. It on occasion will blind your opponents due to the, well it being kinda uncomfortable which made battles short and easy but it still was disturbing. He had this unusually big silver hammer strapped to his back, it was a heavy silver hammer with spikes on one side and full of runes. He liked it because it was super heavy, he always has to try hard to swing it but it made for short victories due to most enemies not surviving one swing of that thing. 

Next to him was Sarah, she was skinny and somewhat short, pale with a bluish glow, she had long wavy bluish hair and had blue eyes, like completely blue, they would shimmer on occasion like there was a tidal wave passing through them. She always had on a sky blue dress, with these white bracelets she had that held both parts of her retractable BO-staff, and which if you ask me, it's way too much blue, kinda hard on the eyes. But not for Chris, he loved her like I did Jane, love like that's typically hard to find. Never could figure out exactly how Sarah and Jane were sisters, they have different powers and as far as I know they were born on different planets.

Chris gave me a pissed look “what are you doing here John? We were ambushed, they knew we were coming and used us to get in undetected” he said as one of those creatures came out of a collapsed building and tried to catch him by surprise. I tried to warn him but he just reached out and grabbed it by the head without looking or stopping his ranting, he kept talking as he started to squeeze “It was planned meaning you should be in your castle making sure your family is safe” I immediately froze at the realization of that, and a bit dumbfounded at Chris's definition of “undetected” and snapped back into reality as I heard a loud crack and noticed the creature stop struggling and was just dangling in his hand. Sarah grabbed his other arm and held him “Chris, your anger, control it,” she said and his eyes lit up like the blindfolds were removed and looked at her then the body dangling in his other hand.

“sorry” he said and he released his grip on the creature as another explosion went off behind me. Chris put his hand out “give me your hand John I'll toss you towards your castle and you can use your powers to propel yourself the rest of the way.” I grabbed his hand, he smiled “just like old time huh John?” Chris said and I nodded as I was immediately flung into the air, I lit myself on fire, using my momentum and power like a rocket's engine, as I flew across to the castle I could see hundreds of ships landing and attaching themselves to the planet like leeches. But of course my luck would be that the angle wouldn't put me at the window, but the castle wall, all I could think was, “shit.” followed by me going straight through the wall and landing on the floor of my room as I slid into the wall on the opposite side. “well... that was fun...” I said as I got up barely able to stand I laughed in pain “yup.. exactly like old times Chris.. your aim hasn't improved, at all” I said. 

Then I heard a scream so loud, my heart dropped knowing who made it, I ran, stumbling into the main hall in pain, as I tried to get up again I saw my son, laying on the floor, lifeless, and a part of me just broke, my eyes widened in fear “no! no, no” I said as I stumbled getting to my son. I picked him up, and held him close “no! James, I'm sorry son..” I said as I started to cry. I couldn't believe what was happening to me, that's when I noticed that my son's body was covered in stab wounds, he was a baby, only one would have been enough to kill him, but he had way more than twenty, and his neck was slit to the point that his head was barely hanging onto his body. I get enraged at the sight of that, saying it was overkill would have been a massive understatement. 

Then I heard that eerie laugh again. As I looked around getting enraged I looked up as I saw a man with long black hair covering half his face, with a demented smile on his face showing his sharp teeth, he was dressed in all black and was the most pale person I've ever seen with yellow eyes. He was holding Jane with a knife to her throat, “hello, brother” he said with a big smile which threw me off guard in confusion, and Jane was looking at me confused as well as scared. I put my son down slowly as if I thought he still needed care even though he was gone, Jane could have easily taken him out with a shock to the heart, but she didn't, something was obviously wrong. I got mad as my fists caught fire but then they immediately diminished, he laughed as I looked at my hands in shock “what's wrong brother? Can't use your powers?!” he said with a cocky tone, he did something, somehow, I put my hands up towards him trying to inch closer carefully, I could see Jane looking at me in fear, she was crying, the sight of that broke my heart, she shook her head at me as if trying to tell me not to come closer, I was afraid.

I was worried he was gonna kill her, I don't want to lose her, I couldn't, I wasn't gonna let that happen. “I love you, John” Jane said as I shook my head, I didn't wanna hear those words, because I knew she was saying it in case they were her last words. “you don't have to..” I began to say while stepping closer to him as I was interrupted by that eerie insane laugh just before he cut clean through her neck and dropped her, he just dropped her, like she was trash, just tossed her body on the floor while she struggled to take one last breath.

He smiled “oops”, he said as he laughed and almost lost his balance in the process. I could hear her struggling to breath, she squirmed for a bit before coming to a complete stop, still and unresponsive, dead. “it seems I interrupted you, what were you saying?” he said with a smug look on his face as he licked the blood off the knife, you could tell he was loving the killing. “NO!” I yelled, feeling enraged as I leaped at him, and was shocked when I passed right through him as he turned into black smoke and vanished. I hit the wall yet again as I heard his laugh echo throughout the walls “you were too slow John, as always” he said, I could see a silhouette of a person running to me as I blacked out. Next thing I know I'm waking up on my ship, the Destroyer, with Chris, Sarah, and some pale chick with red eyes, long black hair, she was in a black and blood red trench coat that seemed a bit too small on her, sitting by my side. The first thing I heard was from Chris “I'm sorry for your loss” as Sarah started to cry, but you can tell she had just stopped herself from crying shortly before this. That's when I remembered it all, I felt empty, then the emptiness was filled with rage, I turned to Chris, “you knew!” I yelled as he looked at me shocked “ you led them here!” I yelled.

He got angry and you could see he was fighting himself from punching me, “you think I set this up John?! Planned my best friends wife's murder?! My wife's sister's murder?!” he got up from the chair he was sitting on. “Grow up John, we were attacked and boarded within seconds before entering your atmosphere! Stop blaming everyone else, you left her side to see if we were OK, if you have to blame anyone blame yourself!” he said as Sarah got up. “Chris!” she yelled at him in disappointment as I grabbed him by the neck and began to choke him “ you shut the hell up right now!” I yelled as my voice echoed over itself in a demonic way. “you didn't know, I didn't know, no one but who ever planned this deserves to be blamed!!” I said as I kept choking him.

“enough!” the girl yelled as she managed to pick both of us up like nothing by the neck. Which most definitely shut us up in surprise. She released us and we fell back, gasping for air as I managed to ask “and who the hell are you?” angrily and yet afraid to sound threatening. Chris spoke up, “her name is Kayla Venenrune, she found you and brought you here, but as to why she was there or how a vampire managed to walk around down there without immediately burning to nothing she has failed to mention, but we were more focused on making sure you didn't die” he said. I looked at him shocked as he continued to speak surprisingly well after being choked twice “it sure was weird and unexpected, we were evacuating as many people as we could onto the destroyer when she appeared out of thin air with you in her arms” I looked back at her with anger in my eyes “the man who killed my wife and son, he's one of you isn't he?!” I asked furiously as Chris frowned “still accusing people? Really?” he exclaimed, Kayla looked at him with a mad look and turned to me “yes, but I'm not your enemy John, I will tell you what you want to know but only you, then we have a matter to discuss” Kayla said. 

Chris got up, frowned “whatever” he said and began to walk out the door with Sarah, I grabbed his shoulder “wait, you said evacuate.. what happened?” he turned around with a dead look as If remembering was all it took to lose his soul, “john.. people were dying, we lost the fight in minutes even with the defense of the best guards we could dispense from all four of our planets..” I looked out the window and saw nothing but stars and space debris, “how long was I out? How far did we get?” I asked but there was just silence. I turned around to see their faces and my heart sank again. “john.. we're still repairing the engines, we haven't left the system, were cloaked...” Chris said, I looked back outside and realized it, all the debris, it's not junk, it's fragments of the planets surrounding the sun in this system, surrounding what once was my home. Chris put his hand on my shoulder “you need to talk with Kayla, and we need to contact the alliance to make sure we can get back up to defend my world, chances are it wasn't a random strike and the direction they left in is in the direction of my world.”

“and Jane's” I said, “her planet is in the system right next door, it's a closer target” Chris just nodded “okay” Kayla said as Chris and Sarah walked out the door “now, what is it you need to know” she asked as I looked at her, “how bout you start with why I'm supposed to trust you?” I said looking at her with curiosity and continued “then tell me how you survived walking on my planet.” She frowned, “fine, well for starters, I saved you, I followed that egomaniac because I knew he was up to something horrible, but just as I was suspicious of him as he was of me, I could have been there to help save them if I wasn't in a fight of my own with 4 of those hideous things he calls soldiers. I've been hunting him down ever since he killed my parents after my father gave him the gift of being one of us” she said as I looked at her confused “gift?” I said. “how is that a gift?” she slapped me the second i uttered those words “that's rude John, I don't go around insulting your race, now any real questions?” she asked. 

I took a couple of steps back before saying anything “well, walking on my planet and surviving, and I guess still the same one... sort of. a gift? So he wasn't a vampire to begin with?”. She shook her head “how I survived is a story for another day, when I know I can trust you, John, and.. well, nevermind, as for Jake, he was one of you, your brother to be exact, he was banished by your father for doing something horrible, my father was the only one who knew what it was he did” she replied as I looked at her confused. “what was the other thing you were gonna say before talking about Jake?” I asked. she looked away “it’s nothing” she said as i got angry “no you want me to trust you, then you gotta trust me” i said, i could tell she was not used to admitting someone else is right “fine!” she said in anger. “I can't tell you because i can’t remember,” she said. “what?” I was confused but she ignored my question and started fiddling with the sleeves of her coat. “All I know is it has something to do with this thing” she said.  
My eyes widened “oh! that's why it looks like you haven’t taken it off in years” i said as she gave me a death stare “no! the reason why isn't something I feel comfortable talking to you about! now any real questions?!” she said furiously. I took another step back “well the banished bit, what's that about?” I asked as Kayla looked at me confused “ it's bad enough I didn't know, but how could no one have any memory of him?” I asked, Kayla sighed “ I can't answer what I don't know John, all I know is whatever he did started the brief war between your world and Jane's and is somehow linked to why Sarah isn't of the same element as Jane, now if there's no more questions we need to discuss something else” I nodded “there's more but nothing you can answer” I said.

“okay, well there's a few things I need to discuss with you but only one thing is important as of now” she said as she frowned “I hate to ask this of you, but Jake, your brother given what he was before my father turned him, he became the embodiment of true immortality, being born into something that can kill one of us just by doing everyday things, then being turned, either the process kills you or you become immortal” she said as I looked at her confused “OK I think I get it but, I'm missing the part that's the question you don't wanna ask” I said as she gave me a pissed off look “well if you're done being an ass... the question is do you think you can stop a man like that without becoming what he is..?” she asked me. “Are... are you suggesting I become one of you? A vampire?” I said upset and stood back to avoid being slapped again, she just looked away, “yes, it seems the only logical way.. the thing is, although he knew what your brother did he didn't know the full details.. meaning he didn't know exactly who your brother was, so he had no idea that by doing this he'd be killing himself the second Jake's blood entered his body” she said, still confused I asked “what do you mean?” 

“blood from both parties has to circulate between both people for the change to occur, you dumb ass” she said upset, I laughed “OK no need to call me dumb” I said and took a step back before I kept going when I noticed her squint her eyes at me in anger “so you're not ashamed of asking because you're worried how I'll react, you're afraid that i'll say yes cause it will kill you?” I smiled and looked out the window “yeah, and I'm the ass” I said. She walked out the door “i don't care if I die as long as someone kills the bastard for what he did to my father” she said as the door closed behind her. I took one last look out the window before walking out of the room we were in, I made my way to the communications room in the center of the ship. Everyone was there already waiting for me, I looked around confused “what?” I asked, Chris stepped forward “well.. this is your ship, we need to know what we're gonna do, however I suggest going to the alliance and asking for everyone's aid in this fight” he said. 

“that's an excellent idea, but if I'm doing that, what were you doing when you said you'd contact them?” I asked as Chris just looked at me with disappointment “we've tried three times no answer, left a message in the logs for them to look over and call back” he replied. I rolled my eyes “let's just hope they don't have their heads up their asses and actually listen to us, do me a favor Chris, try one more time, I need to make sure that Jane's world is doing OK” I replied, he nodded and turned to one of the computers connected to the desk surrounding the holo-table in the center, Sarah looked up from her hands she had finally stopped crying, it was a saddening sight, she was looking at me with big sad eyes I almost wanted to look away “John?..” she said still sobbing “can I go with you? I've always wanted to visit luminous ever since I found out that Jane was my sister and that's her home.. but I've never been there” she said.

I looked at Chris and he just nodded, you could tell he didn't like the idea of her going there but he knew she'd find a way eventually, “okay” I replied “get to one of the cruisers and wait for me. I need to set the coordinates on the ship.” I walked out of the comm room and made my way towards the front of the ship as Sarah passed me and into the west hall that led into the left wing of the ship where some of the cruisers were docked. All along the way I could see the people, hurt, injured, some on the verge of dying lined all along the walls on stretchers, it was horrifying, some of them were missing arms or legs, but what worried me was the decay, the ones that were losing the fight, the more closer they got with death the more that darkness took over, like an infection. 

I walked into the navigation room and was surprised to see Kayla sitting in there, she turned around and frowned when she saw my expression “what?” she said. I gave her a pissed look, she rolled her eyes “okay, I know how to be a pilot, I figured you might need someone driving this thing,” she said, she got up real close as if to challenge me “but you better work your ass off trying to find a pilot for this ship cause I'm not gonna sit here while you go out there and save people” she exclaimed. I nodded and gave her the coordinates to luminous, “okay, get us here then” as I walked out I heard her cuss under her breath and say “just this time I'll sit here while you're out being a hero”. 

I met up with Sarah at the cruiser, we broke out of light speed just as we got into the cruiser, I looked over at Sarah and smiled as I saw her eyes widen in excitement. “wow!” she turned to me with big eyes “it's beautiful, and very bright too, I can't believe I'm here” she said as I smiled “you think that's beautiful, just wait till we land, it's better on the surface,” I said as heard the static from the comms turning on, “alright we're as close as can be to luminous John, I'm detaching the cruiser from the Destroyer now” said Kayla “thanks, be back in a bit” I replied as I turned on the engine and steered towards the planet. As we broke orbit into the planet I looked over at Sarah and she looked a bit scared “don't worry I won't crash” I said smiling. 

She looked at me sad and said “I know it's just... I've never been so close to a window of a ship or cruiser that's breaking orbit.. and since what happened on inferno... I can't look at fire without remembering the ship falling as we were boarded by those... things... It was scary, but when you're in a position where you have the ability to see people to safety, you have too.. no matter how scared you are”. I looked away regretting the crashing comment “oh, well... hey the view of the planet will take that sadness away, I promise, it's the most amazing thing to..” I was stopped by what I saw, shit, just my luck, another promise I couldn't keep. The planet was destroyed, being consumed by darkness. I looked at Sarah and I could see the fear in her eyes. I turned the comms back on “Kayla, get Chris and get down here, there's more of those things attacking luminous, we need to see if there's any survivors who can help draw this back” I said waiting for a response, “Shit! Okay we're on our way, but who's gonna watch the ship?” she replied I couldn't think with all the fear and anger flowing through me, plus i'm sure she wasn’t concerned with the ship just being on another sun planet that is hotter than mine “forget it, we need to see what we can do down here first, the ship will be fine” I said.

It was horrible, the legs of the ships of those things were burrowing into the planet and these tentacles started coming out of all ends of the ship, leaching off the life of the planet like parasites, decaying everything, as the planet got darker the ship seemed to get bigger like it was literally being powered by life itself, I almost lost hope of finding survivors when I heard a distress signal come through from luminous castle. “if anyone can hear this, we need help, there's some wounded, were fending them off as best we can but we're losing,” said a woman's voice there was static but among the static I heard something disturbingly familiar, a menacing laugh, it was faint like it was far away but i knew what it meant then the static cleared again “one of our own has turned on us, she was a spy for those things, she had us all fooled, she is an unstable element, don't fight her alone” I looked over at Sarah, she looked afraid “did.. did u hear that laugh?” she asked. I just gave her a serious look “we need to get there, fast” i said as i heard the message again. Sarah looked at me worried “it's on a loop John, what if their long dead already?” she asked me, i just shook my head and looked at the castle as we got closer, we can't afford to think like that. 

As we approached the castle we could see the locals fighting them off, there were a bunch of dark beings that were climbing the walls of the castle, trying to kill the people fighting for their lives. There were so many people huddled in a corner as a handful of guards and a woman were fighting them off protecting the people, the woman caught my attention, she wore this long purple coat with a hood, and a tight black jumpsuit. I could barely get a good look at her, her hood was practically covering her face but she was taking them down good, one pistol shot to the head each, but the ammo was unusual. It reminded me of the weapons on the ships that took down my planet.

I was starting to think they didn't need help, she took one down after the other like a pro, never missing a single shot, Sarah was definitely impressed, like a little kid meeting her idol for the first time. She shot one after the other, she was the most awesome marksman I've ever seen. She was doing pretty good when a hoard of them climbed over, she looked like she froze and I got worried but she just raised her hand and a ball of light glowed in it, it got bigger then everything down there went white, like a flash from a camera flashed down there. I kept hearing the gunfire and when it cleared I saw the creatures were disoriented and looking around as she kept shooting with exceptional precision. just then one of them tried to sneak up on her, I got worried but as it jumped to pounce on her she grabbed it by the neck without looking like she could scene it. She kept firing while holding the being, then when she got a second of peace she aimed the gun at its head still holding it with the other hand and shot the head clean off. 

“wow!” Sarah said with a big smile and wide eyes, I smiled and thought maybe we didn't need to intervene when a big one broke through the wall it looked like a giant but just with four arms, it picked up the guards and smashed them together in one big smack. When the dust from that settled there was just ashes in front of the giant, it roared as its tongue squirmed around like a snake and picked up the remaining guard with its tongue. It was a gruesome sight, the tongue had teeth, and it just ripped through the guards armor like nothing in one hit and went straight through the guy, as the guard was dangling lifelessly from the tongue I noticed the teeth at the end was holding something, it had its teeth burrowed into the heart and it was still beating, it ripped the guards heart clean out of its body. 

You could see the guard decaying in seconds, getting mummified and consumed by darkness, as that happened the giant got a little bigger just like the ships with the planet. As I landed the cruiser I prepared to jump out, I switched the autopilot landing sequence and jumped out as the door opened, I held onto the hilt of my sword I had on my back the second I landed waiting for the right moment to strike. As the giant dropped the withered corpse it crumbled upon impact with the ground, It shot his tongue out at me and I slid out of the way just barely missing the tongue while bringing out my sword and I sliced it’s tongue right off his body with one swipe. Feeling good in the moment as I heard it yell in pain I didn't notice the giant getting ready to swing its arm. “watch out John!” Chris yelled as he jumped from the cruiser that was still in the air trying to land and caught the giant's swing with his bare hands upon landing. 

The giant grunted in pain as its arm hit the floor with force “now, John I can't hold him for long!” Chris said as he stopped the giants attempt to squash him with his other hand, he looked pretty bad ass holding the giants fists with his bare hands, I got kinda worried for us tho when I noticed the floor crack a little around Chris's feet. “light it up John” Chris said as I smiled in excitement, in my opinion this is my favorite part of my battles, I breathed in real deep feeling the air course in me filling my lungs as it got warm in my chest, as I blew out I could hear my breath come out like a roar as I lit the giant up in flames. I could hear the giant roaring in pain as the girl yelled “hold him steady and move to the right John” I could hear a weird sound almost like there were gears shifting behind me, i just nodded, did as she asked, the second I moved I heard what sounded like cannon fire then I felt something whoosh past me followed by bones smashing and a loud thud. I stopped breathing fire and opened my eyes to see the giant on the ground turning to dust, and a giant hole in the middle of its face.

Chris and I looked at each other in astonishment, then we looked back to see the girl blow at her pistol and spin it into a holster like a badass. As she spun it I heard the sound of gears again and I noticed the size of the pistol get smaller just as it was holstered to her side. I still couldn't see her face, her hood was too long. “who are you?” I asked she looked at me, I got the scene she was smiling and for a second the wind picked up just enough to reveal part of her face and I saw one of her eyes glow red, “that's not important right now, just know I'm a friend, now we must get off this planet before she comes” she replied. “i'll take as many as I can and try to simultaneously pilot the two cruisers, i'd rather not be on this planet” I heard Kayla say through the speakers of the cruiser as she landed, I nodded trying not to think too hard on how she was gonna manage that as I turned to the girl “there's only enough room for the injured on the two cruisers so we're gonna have to wait for her to come back for us” she nodded and we got the people onto the cruisers. 

The whole time Sarah helped the girl using it as a good time to ask questions to get to know her new found idol. It was a cute sight, she followed her around and practically annoyed her, I felt bad as I noticed it seemed obvious the girl didn't want to talk to Sarah. Sarah eventually just gave up and sat down away from everyone else, Chris walked up to me “what happened?” he said looking at Sarah, “she was really fascinated by our new friend here, she kept talking to her and she avoided all of Sarah's questions, I guess Sarah finally realized she was annoying her” I said as Chris frowned and shook his head. He walked over to her and hugged her and she immediately got happy then hugged him back, “you always know when something's wrong, I'm glad I have you in my life, love, and I don't know what I'd do without you” Sarah said as she buried her face in his chest and hugged him tighter. 

“I'm happy you're in my life too and you'll never have to be without me that you can count on” he replied and kissed her forehead, I smiled and walked off to help the others get everyone on board the cruisers, once we got the last person on the cruiser the girl stopped, looking into the distance and said “she's here” I nodded to Kayla to take off and turned to Chris. I was about to speak when he beat me to it “i got this” he said as he ran off towards the gaping hole in the castle wall. “wait!” yelled the girl but the second she did I heard the crackling sound of lighting immediately followed by what sounded like a sonic boom as Chris went flying back, all I had time to say was “Shit” as he flew right into me and like domino's he hit me, I hit the girl, she hit Sarah, and we went flying off the side of the castle, it was a really unbelievable amount of pain getting wacked in the head by a big solid silver hammer when Chris was knocked into me, I blacked out I didn't know where we landed but it felt like we were in the air for a while.


	2. An Enemy revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a continuation of the 1st chapter

I drifted into a flashback, back to when everything was great, it was around the beginning of the year 1988, I was 14, and my parents were holding a meeting with Jane's parents on her world. Back before the division of the alliance worlds, they wanted to unify our worlds, inferno and luminos, by having me marry Jane in the distant future, that's when I first met her. Even then she was beautiful, they left us alone to talk while they discussed the details and whatever else it was they were there for. She was wearing this beautiful white dress, I think it was the only time I ever saw her in something that wasn't black or yellow, or both. We talked for hours getting to know one another, favorite color, hers was blue, mine was green, hobbies, favorite food, our opinions on people we knew, talking about ones we didn't, favorite pets, how our worlds are different.

I realized we had way more in common than we thought, there was like only 3 things we had that were different, as the sun went down she took me to the most beautiful forest I’ve ever seen, so full of life. The plants seemed to give off their own light. I couldn't get enough of it, it was like everything was glow in the dark, the darker colors still shone bright and the brighter ones were practically like neon. We found ourselves in a part of the forest where the plants and trees came together and made a small cave, we laid down and looked at all the plants seeing all the different colors they made, I noticed there was an opening in the center of this cave like groove that was letting in the moonlight. 

“Hey,” she said as she turned to me “is it true that our parents are talking about arranging our marriage?” I looked at her, smiling “ yeah” I replied, she giggled and I couldn't get over how beautiful she was. The moonlight was making her skin lighter in color. “and.. why do you think they need to do that?” she asked, “i don't know, maybe they're trying to unify our people, maybe they'll hate each-other less that way” I replied, she giggled again. “so you're gonna be my husband and stuff in the future?” she said as I looked up at the lights again and smiled “yeah, I guess so” I replied leaning back to lay on the floor. I looked at her, she smiled at me and I smiled back, then she immediately looked away so looked back at the lights feeling embarrassed. Jane laid down next to me and rested her head on my chest, I looked at her a bit shocked but she didn't look up at me or notice that I kinda fidgeted in shock when she did that. “maybe she got comfy and fell asleep or something” I thought, “you know, when my parents told me about today, I got mad” she said, I just looked at her as she kept talking “i was furious that I wasn't gonna get a say in if I did or didn't want to be with you” she continued. 

Then she looked up at me “but honestly, I think I got lucky, you turned out to be someone I didn't expect, someone I think I’d love to be with” she said. I smiled “i was worried this conversation was gonna take a different turn” I said as she looked at me confused, “I'm glad to hear you say that because after getting to know you I was worried you'd hate me, I want this thing between us to happen, because I like you” I said as she blushed and looked away. It made me smile to see that, she's really cute when she does that, with her greyish luminescent skin it's harder to hide when you’re feeling emotions like that, that was the day i made it a point to myself that I’d always make her smile just to see her do that. She looked back up at the lights and said “John... this place is where I come to be alone when I'm sad or worried or when my little sister pisses me off, because this place is so beautiful that being here just takes all my troubles away”. she looked at me “but being here with you, gives me a feeling that's better than what I've felt here before and... because of that.. if I ever have to come here, I want you to come with me OK? It's not gonna feel the same without you, plus you can come here too when you need too as well” she said as I turned to her and smiled. 

“OK, it’s a promise, but you have to promise me the same” I replied as she smiled at me “okay, I promise,” she said in a really happy tone. I looked back up at the lights, I still couldn’t get over how amazing it was here “I didn't know you had a sister” I said, she stayed silent looking at me, I looked back at her to see her squinting at me “why do you want to know about my sister?” she asked, “I don't, I mean she's a part of your family so I do but..” I replied kinda worried I already screwed up somehow “but it's just the whole time you never said anything about her but you talked about your other family members” I said. 

She was still squinting at me as if she thought I was lying “OK... well in that case, we don't talk about her because she was born powerless, my dad for a while assumed my mother cheated, he could never prove that to be true, but she didn't, I know she didn't” she said. I looked at her worried, “oh, so.. you know she didn't? Or you don't believe it to be possible?” I asked her. She laid there quietly, I was worried she had gotten mad, then as I was about to speak she rolled up to me, got kinda on top of me and got real close to my face, “what are you trying to say john?” she said with an angry voice. I looked at her afraid to speak because she was in a position to be able to cause pain in two different ways, I smiled and she laughed, “John, it's OK, yes, I am more unable to believe it's true than actually knowing it's not” she said. 

I smiled in relief and said “it's kinda like my younger brother, except DNA proved he wasn't my mother's, but it also proved there was no living person on record that matched the data, which was hard to explain how my brother isn't my moms kid if she was the one who gave birth to him” her eyes widened “wow.. that's weird” she said then got a smile on her face “oh and one more thing...” she began to say then she leaned in and kissed me, it caught me off guard but I couldn't have possibly felt happier, she was surprisingly a pretty good kisser. It was amazing kissing her, I didn't want it to end but seconds after her kissing me an explosion sounded in the distance followed by sirens. 

“john!” I heard a voice yell, as I woke up, the girl was shaking me awake, i was still disoriented from the smack to the head that it took me a while to realize that she wasn't wearing her hood, she had long hair like Jane's, and one eye was glowing red like mine, and the other was gray. “you...” I looked at her as I backed away “you're Jane's best friend, Jess, the one who tried to keep us apart, you were a horrible jealous friend” I said as Jess laughed “horrible? How was I supposed to know the love was real, before it started it was arranged, and I wasn't jealous because of her like everyone thinks, I was jealous of you.. I loved her too!” she said with an upset tone, I looked at her in shock, “her? Your best friend?” I asked, “yeah, why is it a surprise to know I'm into women?” she stated. I laughed “no, it's not much of a surprise, kinda expected that actually, just didn't think it was Jane you’d fall for” I replied.

She looked at me pissed off “what's that supposed to mean?!” she yelled then Chris interrupted me before I could respond, “uh hate to interrupt but we gotta go before they find us” Chris said, I nodded and tried to get up but I couldn't. “um I think my leg is busted dude” I said, “what?” Chris said, looking upset. I looked around and couldn't believe it, I was in the forest, I was upset at how much the beauty of it was destroyed. Then the flashback reminded me of something, my eyes widened “we knew...” I said, Chris turned to me confused “what?” he asked, I laughed as he went back to trying to look for a good place to hide “we, when we landed I had a flashback of the day I met Jane” I said, Chris just stood there waiting for the explanation, I rolled my eyes “ she knew she had a sister, but... Sarah, she had no powers” I said as I saw her look up still holding her hand on her head from the impact of landing “what?” she and Chris said together. “Kayla said whatever my brother did to get exiled started the war and was ultimately the reason why Sarah has her powers” they exchanged confused looks as I kept going, “and apparently at the time I knew I had a brother as well” I said. 

They were still confused, “I need to know more, I need to figure out how I'm getting these flashbacks of my lost memories back,” I said. Chris smiled and walked towards me “well this one was triggered by a severe blow to the head,” he said as he cracked his knuckles. Sarah got up fast and got in front of Chris “nope!” she said, “no one's getting info like that we find a subtle way to do it, OK?” Chris was about to speak when Jess spoke “she's near, she's almost found us, we need a place to hide” I extended my hand out to her, “help me up I know a place where we can hide for the time being” she looked at me with curiosity as she lifted me up “you mean..” she began to say as I just nodded and limped my way towards the entrance to the cave. 

As I made my way in I was astonished to find that the place was untouched by the corruption, I felt the pain in my knee spike as I tumbled to the floor, it's still as beautiful as I remember. As I tried to stay awake I could see my memories lapsing over my sight as I blacked out again, the sirens were wailing as loud as anything I've ever heard. As we got up in shock I saw Jess running into the cave and Jane immediately got upset “this is my private place, no one's allowed in here Jess!!” Jess squinted her eyes in disappointment and looked to me as if to say “and him” Jane looked down and mumbled “he's the exception” I looked at her and I could tell she was blushing. Jess got upset at hearing that, “and me?! Aren't I your best friend Jane?” she said.

“yeah you are, but I like him... plus the arranged marriage thing my parents are discussing with his parents kinda makes it set, besides how'd you even know to look here?!” Jane said as Jess got distant as if hiding something, “since I'm your best friend and I know you well, your parents tasked me with being your bodyguard starting now till you die, I always wait close, I know you come here for your space that's why I never enter just hoped one day you'd let me in so I can help you not be alone.... but I waited just to be beaten to it by him and…” she paused for a bit. i could tell she was hiding something, i looked at Jane to see her looking at Jess with sad eyes, i think she figured out why Jess was taking it too hard. “I don't think the arranged marriage is happening anymore, his brother set off some bombs and kidnapped Sarah, they think it was intentional to get us while we're down so I rushed over here to make sure that he wasn't on an agenda of his own too” Jess said.

Jane got mad “agenda? Really Jess? he's far from sinister and if he had one I'm sure it never went farther than stealing a kiss, and if that was the case he really wouldn't have had to try.. I was hoping for one too..” she said as Jess got more upset but before she could yell I interrupted, “what?!” I exclaimed, “why in the name of the ancients would I or my parents ever do such a thing?.. they wanted peace” I said as Jess looked at me shocked, she shook her head and asked “did they truly say that? Or did they just say what they thought you needed to hear?” she said as I gave her a mean look “they did! They wanted peace!” I said. “oh yeah? Then what of your brother?” she asked I started getting the feeling that I wanted to punch something “if I knew why would I be sitting here playing 21 questions?” I said. “enough!!” Jane yelled “Jess, don't interrogate him or I’ll punch you in the face so damn hard, you'll get amnesia, now let's get out of here, OK?” Jane said as Jess nodded in anger and we all just ran out of the cave.

“John!” Jess yelled “John, get up dammit! She found us! Chris and Sarah are holding her off but we need to go!” I tried to open my eyes but i felt like i was losing my vision, i fell back down and Jess slapped me. i sat up fast to see Jess looking at me worried as hell, “for real? why Jess?” I said holding the side of my face she slapped, she just gave me a stare that I ignored and tried to get up but couldn't “can anyone get a hold of Kayla? Can she pull us out of this somehow?” Chris yelled over the lightning that he was blocking with his hammer, “yeah, she's working on something but she needs time!” Jess replied, “but that's more than likely time we don't have!” Sarah yelled. I looked over and in between bursts of lightning I could see a figure, she wore a jumpsuit of some kind, couldn't get detail cause of all the light flashes the impact of her lightning made, her hair was long, black, and it looked alive like they had currents of electricity running through them like electric wires. Her eyes, pure horror, were glowing yellow, the skin around it was cracking and glowing like her body couldn't contain her own energy. 

All I could do was hope that somehow someone new would swoop in and save us, or at least instantly heal me so I could help fight them off. “we need to leave, now!” Chris yelled as he continued to pray the lightning bolts with his hammer, it was a pretty cool sight, if we weren't in danger right now I would be amazed by it. It was like he was playing a game, he would swing at the lightning coming at him and waking it off in another direction, he did it with such precision like he knew exactly where the lightning was gonna strike. Just as he swung at one of the bolts of lightning Sarah peaked out of the edge she was using as cover, as she did that the lightning curved towards her and struck her causing her to go flying back. 

The weird thing was just as she was struck it curved and moved all over her like she was getting covered in lightning but was stopped as she flew past the entrance to the cave, “Sarah!” Chris yelled, turning around to run to her side. the woman or demon whatever she was, she took it as an opportunity to strike and tossed another lightning bolt at him but before it could hit him or Sarah it was stopped, and these yellow ripples went outwards from the cave entrance as if it hit an invisible wall. I looked around and saw a surprised look on Jess’s face, but it wasn’t as if something unexpected just happened, it was more like when you're old and find a piece of tech you used to use as a kid, turn it on, and find out it's still working kinda surprised.

“Jess?” i asked her and she just shook her head, “it’s too much to explain” she replied, i just looked at her confused then remembered what she said at the castle. “how do you know when she’s coming? and who is she?” i asked, she just looked off to the distance “its.. her name is Shockwave, she’s not the first unstable lightning based element i’ve run into and after what the other’s did.. I’d never forget the sound, their distinct aura, or anything that makes them different from us” she replied as she got up and walked to Sarah. “She'll be fine Chris, the barrier absorbed most of the impact and took the electricity from her system, she just was out enough to get flung back not severely injured” Jess said as she put her hand on Chris’s shoulder. there was a loud thud, we looked at the to see Shockwave had attempted to run through the barrier, she just kept slamming it with force releasing lightning from her fists as she punched the barrier. that's when i got a good look at her, her jumpsuit was insulated and had tech weaved into the leather, she had three big lightning bolts as an insignia on her chest that went from her neck to her waist, one went straight down and the other two came in at an angle from her shoulders making a converging point at the end. 

When she paused from punching the barrier to catch her breath I noticed that she had some metallic teched out gauntlets and boots that seemed to help her contain her power. She got mad and grunted in anger, I saw a new crack in her skin leading from her eyes appear just before she started punching the barrier again, the barrier started to surge, you could tell she was starting to break the barrier. “well we're gonna die” Jess said as she looked at the barrier slowly diminishing, then this light appeared out of nowhere, I could barely see, “hey what's with the light?” I asked, raising my hand to cover my face, Jess looked around confused “what light?” she asked. 

My eyes widened “guys? am I dying?? I'm dying aren't I?” I asked as Jess looked at me like I was an idiot “yes John, because it's normal for someone to die from a partially broken probably just bruised leg..” she said with a sarcastic voice. I looked at her pissed then I heard this voice in my head “no you're not, and no I'm not a god, but I've been watching and it seems it's time I intervene in the world with time this once” I continued to look around confused as the light vanished. Then I heard that laughter again as on my planet, and in the comms static. Just as he said that Jess started to glow, she looked around frantically “what the hell?” Jess said and as she vanished she looked at me “dammit john, I swear if this is death getting confused I'm gonna kill you!” she yelled as her voice echoed and vanished with her. We all looked around in shock as the same thing happened to Sarah, she started laughing “this tickles!” she tried to yell in-between her laughs as she started to lose balance, she completely disappeared seconds before hitting the floor laughing. I heard a gunshot and turned to see the girl that was shooting lightning at us bent forward, behind her I saw a group of guards running towards us. She stood up slowly and I could see a hole going through her forehead, she turned around and pointed at the guard that shot her and a crap ton of lightning lightning bolts struck him, lightning rained down on him, bombarding that spot till there was nothing but dust in a crater. 

My eyes widened in fear at what she did, she was about to attack the other ones when a spear went through one, Jake appeared out of nowhere in mid air seconds later and landed on the other guards shoulders he started stabbing the guys neck multiple times till the wounds went clean through and the guards head went rolling. I looked at my hands and saw I was starting to glow like Jess and Sarah did, I looked back up to see the remaining guard shot Jake four times, each time he was pushed back not flinching, “you done?” he said as he looked at the guard, when the guard turned and ran Jake smiled, disappeared then reappeared in-front of him with his hand going through his chest, holding his heart on the other side. “what the hell's going on?!” I yelled as I started to disappear immediately after, in the small seconds I was there and on my way to wherever this was taking us, I heard Shockwave yell “no!, they're getting away! Jake give me your spear!” she had a demonic voice that echoed as she yelled.

I immediately thought “shit.. I'm gonna get impaled now of all things” then all I heard was the swoosh of the spear and the sound of it impaling something followed by bones shattering. When the light cleared I could hear someone crying, I regained my sight and that's when I saw it, Chris was right in-front of me, he had a shocked look on him, he fell to his knees as he let go of the hammer, I could hear him grunting as he tried to breath. The hammer hit the ground seconds before his face did. it felt like one of those moments where time slowed down and you could hear his hammer echoing from the impact on the floor, it was at that moment I realized what had happened as Sarah dropped to her knees over his body crying, “no!” I yelled as I dropped to my knees on the other side of Sarah. I looked at his body laying flat on the floor as his brownish blood started oozing out of him onto the floor around us, the spear had gone straight through his heart and you could already see the darkness corrupting him and spreading through his veins.“no!” I yelled again “ I can't lose you too” I started to shake his body trying to wake him up. I could hear Sarah crying in-front of me, my heart broke at the sound of it, I knew exactly what she was going through, no one should have to go through this. “it should have been me” I said as I gave my friend one last hug, “it should have been me..” I felt a hand touch my shoulder “loss is sadly inevitable in this war John, and your pain I'm afraid is far from over” my eyes widened, I recognized that voice, “you were the one talking in my head weren't you?” I asked. 

He just nodded his head in silence, I got up and looked at him, he was a tall and very skinny guy with an unusually big head, he had slits for nostrils, and had four glowing yellow reptilian like eyes, I couldn't tell if his skin was armor or if he was actually wearing armor. “how did you do that? How did you talk to me in my head? How did you get us out?” I asked. He just stared at me, “answer me!!” I yelled, he just turned away. “please... I need to know” I begged. “my name is Sean” he said as he turned to me, “I did all this to save you from the inevitable, I'm the master of time, I'm not supposed to intervene but the enemy you face, the one organizing all this, is an enemy out of time, therefore I have to intervene... but momentarily only”. 

I looked around confused, the place was amazing, nothing like I've ever seen before the plants were alive like I've never seen before, everything had a certain feel to it like it was untouched by life, or darkness, or anything. There was no sun but there was sunlight, like the atmosphere itself generated the time of day. As I continued to look around I noticed there were plants thought extinct, others that I didn't recognize, maybe undiscovered as of now I guess. “where are we?” I asked Sean, he just looked at me, I was about to punch him when someone else entered the room. “This is a place out of time, can't be found, can't be touched, unless we allow it” said the voice I turned around to see this person that looked just like me, even the same taste in wardrobe just with minor differences like his skin was black, and his eyes were dark gray. “who are you?” I asked, he smiled “here my name isn't important, but you can call me black-fire.” I looked at Sean and he just gave me a look as if to say just go with it, I looked back at black-fire “he said this enemy is a person out of time, who is it? Why are they doing this?” I asked.

“This person goes by the name Shadow and those questions are irrelevant at the moment, John, the medallion you were gonna give your son, you could use it on Chris. He died a while back but seeing as he died out of time, means he can still be saved but the medallion is linked to you. Anyone who dies while wearing it is... well, put on hold till you die” blackfire replied. Sarah looked up at me “John... please, if you can bring him back..” she began to say before I cut her off “if I can, I will, you have my word” I said smiling at her and I handed the medallion to black-fire. He just handed it to Sean as he walked into what looked like a house, “wait, where's he going? Chris is here?” Sarah said. Black-fire just laughed and turned to me “John... you have a long road ahead of you before you die, and everyone who decides to join your cause deserves a chance at a fresh start after all this” he said as I nodded in agreement. “so.. you can replicate it?” I asked. Black-fire chuckled a bit “well who do you think made them?” he replied as he walked into the same house that Sean walked into. “and then there were 4...” Jess said. I turned to her with a pissed off look and she just looked down “what??” I asked. 

“Well there was you, Sarah, Chris, and that girl that took the survivors in the cruisers, and me, now it's just you, Sarah, me, and that girl” she replied. I realized what she had just said, completely ignoring her comment “Kayla, the destroyer, we need to find a way back” I said as I looked around at everything. I still couldn't get over how strange this place looked, there was so much open space and i could have sworn i saw a dinosaur of some kind jump into the forest in the distance. Then I looked up and saw the Destroyer flying by, it was strange though because it was so high up in space and yet I could see it clearly, well at least more than usual. Almost like I was looking at a high def video then I noticed it was being chased and shot at. “Guys look” I said, as everyone else looked up I saw it, the biggest ship I've ever seen, it was bigger than the Destroyer which was surprising and terrifying. It looked like an octopus but with wings almost like a cross between an octopus and bird, it finally caught up to the destroyer and gave off the most eerie screech I've ever heard as it wrapped itself around the Destroyer and crushed it to pieces. I got a weird feeling like a part of me snapped, like I was there and I died.

Sean came back out with a mystical looking wooden box that had all these runes on it and saw us looking up in despair, he shook his head. “you weren't supposed to see that John” he said as he turned to black-fire “why didn't you bring them inside?” Black-fire just stood there like a deer caught in the headlights. “what do you mean Sean?! Was I not supposed to know what's happening out there while hiding here?!” I asked furiously. He just nodded his head in disappointment, “John, I'm disappointed, you really think that just happened?” he replied. “I don't understand” I said looking around confused, “you're in a place out of time John” he said as I turned to my team and they just looked at me confused, but Jess's eyes widened “that hasn't happened yet has it? We saw the future?” she asked. 

Sean smiled “it seems you're a quick learner Jess, unlike your leader” he said as he turned to me. Jess just gave me a smug look. I rolled my eyes as I turned to Sean and just gave him a look like dude what the hell. “hey! He's been through a lot, Sean, Jane's death, his son's death, Chris's....” Sarah began to say as she was interrupted. “you speak to a master of time, you don't think I know all this already? There's still no excuse” Sean said. She began to step forward to confront him then I put my hand on her shoulder and shook my head. “no Sarah, he's right, I'm supposed to have my head on straight regardless, I don't get to grieve, or let the pain affect my job. if I do no one else gets too, I need to do my job and lead before we lose it all” she turned to me with sad eyes “but that's not fair for you” she said as I smiled “life isn't fair Sarah” I replied.

Sean handed me the box, I looked at him confused “what's this?' I asked, “it's the medallions you'll need to keep your team together” he replied, I opened the box and looked up at him “that many? That fast? It took a year to get the approval for the one I asked for my son” I asked, he turned to black-fire, as he walked forward I handed Sarah two medallions and gave one to Jess “how fast do you think messages get into a place out of time?” blackfire said “plus extending someone's life by leaching off someone else power? Stuff like that requires the council's approval, or well it did”. I looked around forgetting I was still in this place and saw Sarah put the medallion around Chris's neck and close his eyes. I immediately looked back at black-fire “right, sorry” I said. Black-fire put his hand on my shoulder “you can do this, don't focus on what you saw up there, that's only a portion of the truth that may or may not come to pass, and...” he stopped talking and looked at Sean. Sean just nodded then walked off, “and you'll get to see your son again, that day will be here faster than you know it” Blackfire said. 

I looked at him confused “what do..” I began to say but was cut off. “It's time for you to get back out there and fix all this John” black-fire said as everything went white again, then we were back in the Destroyer. I regained my eyesight as I heard Kayla yell “what the hell?!” I was knocked on the floor and saw she was hugging me. “I was about to go down there and look for you guys, how the hell did you get on the ship??” she asked as I pushed her off me and got up, “it's a long story Kayla” I said. As she got up she noticed who was on the floor “oh.. shit, John, what happened to him” I gave her a serious look and she frowned “right.. long story” she stated. I opened the box and gave a medallion to her “awe how sweet you got me a souvenir” she said in a girly and giddy voice. I just looked at her with a serious face, she rolled her eyes “relax John, it's a joke, I know what this is, gotta learn to joke around dude” she said as she put the necklace on. I just turned towards the front of the ship and began walking as I said “we need to check on Chris's world defend it for him and hope that we aren't already too late” 

Kayla sighed “okay, put the coordinates in the ship's nav center and i'll take us there” she replied as she walked in the other direction. I put the coordinates to Terra into the nav center and walked back into the main hall. I saw all the injured people and then I remembered what I saw in the skies of that place we were in. I couldn't let them all die like that, I closed my eyes and thought in my head “I hope this works”. “Sean, you got into my head back there on luminous so I'm assuming you can hear me now, these people don't deserve to die and if this ship gets attacked like how I saw they will die, and they don't have a home to return too anymore so please.. take them in, keep them safe from all this, you don't have to answer but if you can hear me, please.. for them.. keep them safe” I said. I felt the room light up then it was gone, I opened my eyes and saw that everyone was gone.

I smiled “thank you Sean” I said as I walked into the main hall I saw Jess walk up to Sarah “I'm sorry about Jane, I figured she was gone when you all came without her, but I hoped that... I knew I shouldn't have pushed her away. I should have been there to help instead of getting mad at her and not showing up to their wedding or not talking to any of you guys at all after that” she said as she looked away before continuing. “you know, I had no idea they had a son.. I would have loved to meet him... i think i would have made a great aunt, and, well that must have done a lot of damage to John.. losing them both” she said as Sarah sighed and looked at me. “Yeah, more than he likes to show, I'm worried that it's gonna get him killed” she said, trying to ignore what I just heard I shifted my attention toward Chris's body. I couldn't get over how gruesome it looked, the spear was still in his body, it was unusual, I couldn't recognize the material used to make it. It's as if the spear was made out of dark energy, and the metal looked like silver but it also looked alive like flesh. I didn't even notice we had made the trip to Chris's planet until I felt the jolt of the ship leaving lightspeed “John, you need to get up here now” I heard Kayla say on the comms. I began to run but I immediately felt disoriented, It felt like someone was trying to get inside my head, and for a split second I saw this guy or robot, the mask was creepy as hell, it was slick black made of some kind of bio-organic metal, the eyes glowed blood red and he had lines of red flowing throughout his body like a grid or power source. 

I could have sworn I felt a connection to this thing somehow but I shook it off and kept running when I felt the ship tug to the right to avoid fire. The second I got up to the front of the ship I saw it, the big ship from the vision. It was guarding the planet, it was already gone, the planet was completely corrupted and changed, it had a strong pull like it was starting to become a black hole. “no!” I heard as I turned to see Sarah run up behind me. I stopped her and hugged her, “you shouldn't be seeing this” I said as I was pushed against the wall by another quick dodge from another attempt at an attack. 

“John, the ship is starting to move towards us, we need to leave now!” Kayla said “no! We need to save it, please!” Sarah said, I hugged her tight “no, there's nothing to save we need to get to your planet and make sure that it's okay” I said as I looked at her trying to avoid eye contact with her big sad eyes “but..” she began to say as Kayla cut her off “John destination, now!” I nodded “Sarah's planet, the Poseidon system, fast!” Kayla laughed, “the only way I do” she said. She began to input the coordinates but stopped for a briefe second, “wait, what?” she said shocked. “Kayla!” i said worried as the ship flew closer to us, “right, sorry” she replied as we jumped into light-speed again. “are you okay?” I asked Sarah, she didn't answer she just buried her head in my chest and started to cry, “I'll be okay, they'll pay for this, I promise” I said as I patted her head, and exchanged argumentative looks with Kayla like she was trying to tell me not to make promises you won't be able to keep. 

I looked over to Kayla confused, “what was that hesitation back there?” I asked her, she looked back at the monitor then at me. “For a brief second I picked up a corrupted signal, wedged in with a signal of another ship, the corrupted signal was the destroyer's signal” Kayla said. I looked at her confused, “how can that be? That would mean there was another version of our ship out there with us” I said. “well.. I mean” she began to say as we were distracted by what we saw as we left lightspeed, there was a wreckage of those ships that seem to be invading everywhere.

Kayla looked at me shocked “what do you think caused this?” as she said that two more ships came out of light-speed and seconds after a blue light lit up inside one of those wrecked ships and whooshed towards one of the ships. It looked like it went straight through, like a ghost, the ship instantly spit in two, I let go of Sarah to get closer to the window to see what it was and I could have sworn I saw a person holding a sword, or a scythe. It whooshed through the other one and turned towards us as the second ship split in two. “John!..” Kayla said looking at me scared. I just held up my hand telling her to shut up. It landed on the tip of the ship, that's when I saw him. A tall skinny person, in a long black cloak, like a reaper's cloak, it was tattered and torn, I could only see his eyes, glowing bright blue, and the scythe he was holding, it was giving off the same darkness as the spear but he had some device on the joint between the blade and the shaft that was altering its power, but the blade, it was made of solid ice.

He just looked at me and tilted his head like out of curiosity, he raised his scythe like if to strike, “John, what do we do?” Kayla asked, then Sarah walked forward and he put his scythe down, he just looked at her. “your OK..” Sarah whispered, Kayla and I exchanged confused looks then he disappeared and reappeared inside the ship. Kayla jumped back as Sarah and this reaper, just kept looking at each-other, then he let go of his scythe and I was shocked to see it float next to him instead of falling. He hugged her and yelled “sis!, you're alive” he said and continued as he took off his hood “when I heard about Terra I feared the worst had happened” me and Kayla exchanged confused looks again then I looked back at him “sis?” I asked him. he just looked at me in silence, he was crazy pale like even more pale than Kayla, if that's even possible, he had clear blue hair, short hair, very short kinda on the bald side, and it kinda looked iced over. 

He laughed “well yeah, not blood tho” he looked at her “I only say this because I assume you already found out your Jane's sister” Sarah backed up confused “you knew?” he just ignored her question and looked at me. “where's Jane?” I just walked away and I heard Sarah slap him “what?” he asked, “she's dead” Kayla replied. “oh..” he said and began to follow me. “John I'm sorry, I didn't know, but I need your help..” he began to say as I turned around and punched him. He went flying into the wall, he laughed “I deserved that” he said as he got up. “you pull that crap about Jane and then ask for my help?!” I replied furiously, he smiled “again I deserved that, let me start over, my name's Oscar, Oscar Westbrooke, I'm sorry about Jane, but I need your help keeping this world safe till everyone evacuates” he said as he held out his hand, I just looked at it and gave him a pissed look. “Okay then.. seems I messed that up” Oscar said. I walked off towards the right wing of the ship towards the cruisers “so are you gonna help?” Oscar asked as Kayla stopped him from following me, “Just meet us on the planet's surface” I said as I kept walking, he nodded in agreement and vanished. 

I was about to get inside the cruiser when I heard the others walk up behind me “John?” Sarah asked as I turned around “is it OK if I sit this one out? I wanna spend time with Chris, I wanna bury him here, on my planet, but I don't wanna bury him looking all beat up and stuff” I nodded. “you OK? You need company?” I asked, She just shook her head and walked away. I turned to Kayla and gave her a serious look “hey she'll be fine, I'll keep an eye on her” she said. I nodded and got into the cruiser with Jess. I started the engines of the cruiser as Kayla detached the cruiser from the destroyer on the bridge, I steered us into the planet's surface as I looked at Jess, “hey, what's wrong? You look distant” I said, she just looked at me “nothing just got personal business here on Nero I'm thinking about” she said. 

I looked at her worried “you need help?” I asked, she smiled and looked out the window, “sure, but only if you don't ask any questions,” she said. I nodded and looked back at the window as we broke orbit into Nero I was both amazed and worried, the planet was covered in water and had sheets of ice on the surface, there was way more water than ice, on the sheets of ice there were houses made of ice, these creatures were walking around everywhere, they were tall and skinny, pale as hell, they looked like anorexic giants with like alien faces and big black eyes. There were small ships where people were packing up stuff, I guess that was the evacuation we had to protect.

Under the water I could see domes that had cities in them some cities didn't have domes, I think those were parts where non-locals weren't allowed. I turned to Jess and she looked at me worried, “are you gonna be OK here?” she asked I nodded “yeah, just gonna be severely weakened” I replied. Jess nodded and looked off to the left where we saw an abandoned building, it looked like a lab, Jess shook my shoulders “there, I need to go there” she said pointing to the lab. I nodded and landed the cruiser on the sheet of ice in between where we were supposed to meet Oscar and where she needed to go. We got out and he wasn't there so we decided to look around the abandoned lab, as we walked in I looked around in astonishment, everything in here looked way more advanced than anything on this planet but you could tell it hadn't been used in years. “where are we?” I asked as Jess gave me a pissed look, “what I say John?” she replied, I smiled “sorry, but just a few, please?” I begged. She laughed “OK..” then she gave a worried look, “so.. you don't remember this place?” she asked me. I looked at her confused and I could see her calm down, as if relieved of my dumbfounded expression. 

“I got a lead a while back about Sarah, you know, when she went missing... it led me here, you and Jane were with me, but.. it turned out to be a dead end” she stated, I nodded in agreement trying to figure out why she was so worried if that was the reason. I kept looking around and I noticed an old flier, like a holographic newspaper with the latest news from the year 1996. “1996..?” I said as I saw Jess turn around and look at me “what?” she asked, I turned to her, “this place, it was abandoned in 1996,” I said. 

She walked up to it “it was a bad year that one.. most of the original team disappeared that year, the parents of all of us on the destroyer... excluding mine” she said with a sad voice as she walked up to me. I looked at her “that's right, you were adopted by Jane's parents at a very young age,” I said as she avoided eye contact “it was also the same year my parents were murdered... The only happy memories of that year was Chris and Sarah's wedding at the beginning of the year” I said as I looked back at the holograph. Jess hugged me and I looked at her shocked, “each and everyone of you guys felt the pain I've had since I was two.. the pain of losing your family, and abandonment.. in one way or the other, I'm sorry you had to go through that” Jess said. 

Then she let go and walked off to this console and turned it on, she gasped, I quickly turned in her direction, my eyes widened in shock at what I saw. There was a list projected into the air, every name on that list, it was one of the missing from the original team from the war, and they had audio logs next to each name. “what the hell..” I said, “voice recognized, John Nightshade, first son of Thomas and Ruby Nightshade, it's good to see you again John” a voice said. My eyes widened as I looked at Jess “hell no.. who was that?!” I asked shocked, then a holographic sphere popped up under the list of names, it looked kinda like an eyeball, it turned to Jess then to me “i am the A.I. of this building,” it said. I looked at Jess confused and she shrugged her shoulders “this wasn't here the last time as far as I know,” she said.

“what do you mean Mrs. Sin-care, we had a rather displeasing argument last time you were here about '' the A.I. started to say as it was cut off “not important” Jess said. The A.I. looked at me, “did you come back to revisit the audio logs that started the unpleasant arguments John? cause as i recall you never wanted to set foot in here again” it asked, “no, but may I?” I asked it. “Certainly” it said, “no'' Jess said as I looked at her confused, “OK, then would you like me to play files John?” the A.I. asked, “yes” I said just as Jess said the opposite again, I looked at her with confusion, “we don't have time John, Oscars waiting for us” Jess said. “if I may John, I can upload to the destroyers mainframe so you may revisit all the logs on these hard drives at your leisure” the A.I. said. 

I looked at Jess then at the A.I. “how do you know about my ship?” I asked, “I know of all the alliance ships and its allies” it replied. I looked at Jess and she shrugged her shoulders, lifted her left sleeve, and tapped a watch she had on. It glowed and opened up as the static I usually hear from the comms came out of it, “yes, Jess?” said Kayla's voice from the watch. I looked at her shocked but she just smiled at me “connect the destroyers signal to my location we've got an A.I. with information we need that has to be uploaded to the ship's mainframe” Jess said. “Jess I don't..” Kayla began to say when I interrupted her “hey, it's John, just do what Jess says I approve of the uplink” I said. 

Then the schematics of the destroyer popped up on the holograph and I could see the data zooming from the computer to the destroyer schematics. Jess looked at me “well, now that that's done, I can do what I came here for” she said, and started planting bombs in the main room. “wait” I began to say as she raised her hand “nope. I said no questions, I meant it” she said. As she walked out I looked back at the A.I. The holograph showing the download was at 50%. “Hey, play the file you asked me about earlier” I said as it looked at me then off to the room where Jess walked into, “as you wish captain” it replied. 

Before I could ask what that was about it disappeared, then a projection of a holographic recording played out. it was pretty cool seeing as it was a lifesize holographic projection, Jess was at the console looking frantic. “A.I. I need you to delete your memory of me being here years back” she said as Jane and I walked in behind her. “Why Jess? something to hide?” we asked her together. she turned to us fast “no it's just” she began to say as the A.I. interrupted her “she wants to hide her involvement in young Sarah's disappearance.'' my eyes widened in shock as the hologram of myself and Jane yelled “what?!” in furiousness, “Jess, tell me this thing is lying” Jane said with sadness. 

Before Jess could say something the A.I. projection displayed a holographic recording, which of course threw me off a bit. watching a holographic recording of an event that popped up its own holographic recording. They gathered around as it showed my brother walk in with Sarah on his shoulders bound tight, Jess following behind them. An entity that looked almost like a reaper manifested in front of them, “i helped set it up like you asked, they’re gonna think the royal family of inferno planned it. can i go now?” Jess said as they looked at her. my brother laughed as the reaper nodded in agreement “yes” he said in his distorted voice as he reached out to her. He touched her forehead and she fell on the floor, “take her back, she’s earned her life” the reaper said. my brother scoffed, put Sarah then picked up Jess and vanished with her. the reaper turned to a wall as it got darker. “We have her, now we can start the trials” the reaper said as four glowing green eyes appeared on the wall. the thing made a smile just before the holograph stopped. Jess walked in looking at me with a pissed and worried expression, “why’d you have to play that John?” she asked me. i looked at her as if saying “really?”, “i cant talk to you right now” i said, “upload 99% complete John, see you on the your ship” the A.I. said as it disappeared. with that i decided to walk outside “i’ll see you outside” i said as i saw her walk off to another room.

I was about to walk out the doors when I heard Jess call me into the other room, I walked in to see her at another console. She looked at me, “John, I know you're mad and you don't have to believe me, but there's a distress signal coming from Terra's moon” she said. I looked at her then the console “how? we were just there, how come the destroyer never picked up a distress signal?” I asked as she shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know John, but it seems to be encrypted in a way that only this station and our ship can detect it, someone obviously knew we’d be here” Jess said. “How do I know you didn’t fabriact this as some kind of trap?” i said as she just looked at me with disappointment. “Sean maybe? you think there could be survivors?” I asked as she shook her head “not sure, it's been on a loop for a good while John” she replied, I nodded as she smiled, “i need to keep putting these bombs down” she said as she went into the next room, I just walked outside. I waited for her outside for sometime before she came running out “come on John it's on a timer!” she yelled as I began to run after her. 

We walked up to the place where we were supposed to meet Oscar but he still wasn't there, “Jess..” I began to say as she held up her hand again and looked back in the direction of the lab just in time to see it blow up. She smiled “aah, the beauty of the explosions” she said as she looked at me “isn't it amazing?” she asked, I just looked at her with disappointment, and realized something “you really like explosions don’t you?” i asked her as she smiled “yep, i got in trouble as a kid a lot setting off small explosives here and there just for fun” she replied as i looked at her with concern. She looked back at her watch and looked at me “i'll make more for the others by the way” she said as she pointed at her watch, she smiled and looked back at the direction of the lab, she got kinda jittery and a smile came on her face “i'll be back” she said as she ran off.

I walked into a house that looked abandoned and I was shocked to see what I saw, on the wall was a painting of a group of people, I recognized four of them, my parents and Jane's parents. The others I didn't recognize that much but one caught my attention, a girl in all white wearing a skull mask covering half her face, a white cloak with a hoodie, her face was covered well but I got this strange feeling that I knew her. “white reaper was her name” I turned around to see Oscar leaning on the door, I looked at him shocked. “what?” I asked. He smiled “the person you're looking at, that was her name, but no one knew her real name, some even say she's the enemy we're facing now.”

I looked back at the painting, “and you? What do you think?” he smiled, “i think.. I think that if I stick around you we'll all find out the truth soon” he said as I looked back at him “come on, I gotta show you what we need to do” Oscar said as he turned around and walked off, I followed him out and saw Jess run towards us, “where did you go?” I asked. She smiled “oh, just checking on something, don't worry” I looked at her with a bit of anger, she sighed “John, i have no more secrets i promise, it's nothing bad ok?” she said as Oscar looked at us confused. I nodded at him to ignore the conversation and continued to follow him towards what looked like a village. The people there were tinkering with tech from the enemy, one thing in particular caught my attention, it was a bow. It was slick black with white runes, it looked real futuristic and made out of some weird metal I've never seen before but it looked strangely familiar, it also had a reddish glow to it. It had the same tech that Oscar had on his scythe. He saw what I was looking at and smiled, “that doesn't work, it reacted to the tech in a different way, we can't use it” he said. I looked at him and asked, “do you mind if I take a look at it?”, he just nodded, the second I picked it up it glowed bright red and a red string appeared on the bow connecting it, completing the bow, I looked at it in amazement. For a split second I had another flash of that robot or whatever it was, I turned to Oscar who didn't seem surprised it started to work for me, “where did you get this bow?” I asked. 

Oscar looked at me confused “Oscar.. tell me” I said, he sighed, “when they first arrived and started to attack us we almost lost but then this man came out of nowhere, he was in this weird getup like an assassin's costume or something. He used that to turn the tide, once we had a second of peace he showed us how to use the tech to our advantage” he said. I looked at the bow in amazement, “where is he? who was he?” I asked, he looked at me with a worried look “John..” he began to say as I cut him off “tell me” I said. He sighed and pointed to a mural of the guy he was talking about “he's buried in that building.. and as for who.. that's where it got weird” he said as I looked at him confused. “he was your father John.. but you're father died years ago, before all this, you, Jane, Sarah, and Chris were all there when they died.. so we knew it wasn't him, but it was, kinda” Oscar said. 

I kept looking at him confused, “i can't explain it but, I remember he kept saying he needed to find a way back home, when I found out who it was I assumed he meant home to inferno.. but what if that's only partially true?” Oscar said. I looked at him like he was going insane but then Jess stepped in “you mean like he probably was from another universe?” she asked him, Oscar just nodded in agreement. I just shook my head trying to forget that possibility and I touched the bow string, I could feel it sapping energy from me as an arrow appeared on it glowing red. I started to draw it back and was stopped by Oscar “yo, wow, wait, you don't know how much impact it has.. and if it reacts like it did with the previous owner it is a lot of damage.. and I mean a lot, remember what I did to the scout ships up there? That was the weapon using my energy to amplify its power much like the bow is doing to you” I nodded, slowly released its tension and put the bow on my back. 

“hey, when do I get a secondary weapon?” Jess said in a cute whiny voice, we just turned around and looked at her confused. “secondary?” I asked, she smiled “well yeah, you have your great-sword and now the bow” I laughed “Jess, if anything the great-sword is the secondary weapon, plus that pistol of yours kinda fills both categories” I said as she pulled out the pistol and started looking at it, that's the first time I got a good took at it, it looked like a revolver with an extremely long barrel, it was pure silver with engravings that looked like runes, they glowed bright white, which I'm sure that was her doing, there was a weird looking object radiating light between the frame and barrel, in place of the cylinder was a dark silver sphere that had a dark aura emanating from it and the grip was like the barrel covered in rune carvings. “oh, this thing, I've been tinkering with it ever since I took it from one of the elites,” Jess said. She smiled “I guess you're right, it does do a lot of damage, I'm kinda hoping to run into another elite, it would be awesome to have two of these” she said.

“what's an elite?” I asked and felt like a dumbass when I saw the shocked faces on both Oscar and Jess, Jess just smiled “there the only enemy soldiers with brains, think of them as dark generals, the things we've been fighting so far are turned, kinda like UN-dead, but to be UN-dead you have to die before coming back, the turned.. well, they're not dead just being controlled” she said as Oscar stepped forward. “But being controlled like that needs a non-responsive brain, less likely to fight back that way, so.. basically might as well be dead, since there's no way to reverse the effects, believe me I've tried” he said looking away as if trying not to remember something. I got the feeling that he had lost someone important and tried to undo the effects. 

I just looked around at everything trying to process this then I remembered that giant, I turned to Jess “hey, if they're all turned what the hell was that giant” I asked her as she just looked away, I had a feeling there was more to it, she was hiding something. Before I could say anything else I heard the sound of those blasted ships breaking through the atmosphere. “shit!” Oscar said as he grabbed his scythe I put my hand out to keep him from passing me “I got this, I'm kinda dying to try out this bow” he just looked at me kinda upset “are you sure now's a good time for a test run dude?” he asked. 

I just grabbed my bow off my back and drew it, it made an interesting sound as I drew back the string. I could feel it building up energy, for a second I lost balance and got a bit dizzy but then I saw them. Jane's beautiful face, she was holding our son, then I remembered that all this cost them their lives and I got pissed “You bastards need to go to hell!” I yelled, as I released my hold on the string I noticed the arrow catch fire. It made the weirdest sound ever, it had an eerie rocket like sound to it as it flew into the air and was amazed when I saw it go straight through both ships. The force of the arrow pushed the ships back a bit before they exploded into nothing. I looked back at Oscar as the ashes of the ships fell around everything to see his priceless face, he was wide eyed and mouth open like he just saw something inexplicably divine. Jess started laughing and punched me in the back “i think you broke him.”

I put the bow on my back feeling pretty good about myself, smiling, looking around I noticed the people there were bowing. I looked back at Oscar “hey, what are they doing?” I asked, “they're praising you, back before the elements almost went to war with one another they used to be a team, keeping all our worlds safe from common threats, they haven't felt safe since they disbanded, and even more so when they all disappeared... well the ones who weren't murdered that is, and the leader of that group was your father. frankly, you look just like him” he replied. “what happened to them? Why'd they disband?” I asked, Jess and Oscar looked at each-other in shock “how is it we know more than you?” Jess asked. I just shrugged my shoulders, “a lot of my past is... unavailable to me, like memories locked, I've begun to get used to it, after many years of dead ends and no info on why.” They exchanged worried looks, I was about to say something to change the subject when this roar came up from under the water it sounded like more of a wail honestly, like a ghost maybe. 

I looked out towards the edge of the ice as Jess and Oscar turned around I saw these tentacles coming out of the water “Oscar I thought nothing got passed you out there.” I said as he turned around upset “that's correct, but before that an elite landed, we took care of him and his lackeys, apparently we missed some. They came from above so we didn't think to check for any hiding underneath us” he said as I looked back at the tentacles that were rising up “is that thing an elite?” I asked as it continued to rise, then I saw its face, it looked like a fish monster, normal head with gills and Fins on its head and neck, sharp black teeth, and dark blue eyes. As it rose more I realized that the tentacles were his legs, it had four arms and a long body, it was like out of a nightmare, “nope” Jess said, “yup” Oscar said. They looked at each-other like they were disappointed, I looked back and forth at both of them “what??” I asked, “on luminous it.. they looked like our people just with a black aura, like looking at a flying being made out of space itself, and yes.. they had tentacles but coming out of its back” Jess said.

Oscar's eyes got wide, “wait.. that means each elite was made to withstand a specific planet, meaning they were carefully planned and made.. what if all those people that were kidnapped on all our planet's years ago, vanishing without a trace..” he said as his eyes widened in fear “are we fighting our own people?.. does that mean Sarah.. was she a test subject? A beta trial gone wrong?” he concluded. Jess looked back and forth at Oscar and the elite “maybe they succeeded in giving powers to her.. but couldn't convert her to.. whatever the elites are?” she said. I pulled out my great-sword as the elite launched itself at us “guys focus!” I yelled as I swung and chopped off one of its tentacles, they both turned to look at it in shock as it roared in pain. They got out their weapons and prepared to fight it just as it knocked them into a building in one swing of its tentacle and came back around. It picked me up by the neck, I could feel my strength fading realizing that this thing is made to survive a water planet and me being fired, not a good choice to fight this thing head on. 

I could feel it feeding on my energy, I was starting to lose consciousness as I saw it looking at me with interest, it sniffed at me then I saw it lift its hand as claws came out of its fingers, it lunged its hands into my chest as its claws slowly began to burrow deeper into my chest. I began to think about Jane, and my son, how I failed to save them, how I wasn't strong enough to protect them. All I could think is I'm gonna die, I'm gonna see them again, then I felt a burning in my chest, I looked down to see the medallion light up and that's when something strange happened. 

I heard her voice, I heard Jane, “fight John, it's not your time yet, we'll see each-other again soon, but you're not done here yet, fight, I love you.” I was blinded by the light of the medallion, and I just felt myself drop to the floor, as I regained my sight I saw the elite backing away squirming and covering its face. It was roaring in pain as its tentacles went crazy hitting the floor breaking nearby buildings, I could see it smoking like it was on fire, then I noticed its body was bubbling like it was about to blow, it was getting fried from the inside, as it looked at me, I noticed its eyes were blinded and burned. 

The weirder thing is the smoke, it was coming from inside the creature, that's when I noticed it wasn't smoke, it was dirt. I could tell it was furious with me, “John! Get up! Move!” I heard Jess say as I noticed both her and Oscar running towards me just as a bunch of houses in the background started to blow up killing the dark beings rising from the water, for split second I heard a raspy devilish voice in my head “you got lucky boy, they won't be around to keep you alive forever, I may die but Shadows cause will prevail.” Before I could get up the elite blew up causing the ice to shatter and I plummeted into the water, “john!!?” Jess and Oscar yelled. I couldn't breathe and my skin began to burn, I began to lose consciousness again as I started to squirm around feeling the pain of my skin burning from both the outside and inside as I continued to drown, just before I drifted into another flashback I saw someone dive into the water after me.


	3. Things gained, Things lost

The ripple in the water reminded me of what I saw that day it all started, Jane, Jess, and I were running towards Jane's family's castle, some of the trees were semi-clear and it looked like looking through water. On the other side I saw this giant running through the city, I could see multiple elemental firing, there were at least four different elements here fighting this monster, once we made it out of the forest I saw the giant clearly. It was a tall skinny Grey being with four arms, but it was more than that, it was intelligent, as it fought its attackers it would pick up random objects and tweak them turning it into a weapon in seconds and start defending itself. 

As we got closer to the fight, I heard someone call out “John!” I saw this kid running towards me. “I've been looking everywhere for you, your parents are looking for you” he stopped right in-front of me. This kid that looked like a bodybuilder at only 14, his skin was like scaly rocks. “who are you?” I asked, he grabbed my hand and shook it “my name is Chris Lancaster, now come on we need to go to the others,” he said. I looked back at Jane and Jess who just nodded then we all ran towards the fight. 

Once we got there, I saw my parents and the others fighting this giant, it was an amazing thing to see, my mom favored using a bow, every shot she fired never missed, she was wearing a long red cape with a hood that covered her eyes. she had long black hair with a bit of red at the tips that was coming out of the sides of her hood, and wore this black suit under the cape that looked kinda like a jumpsuit, she had all these different kinds of knives strapped throughout both her jumpsuit and the inside of the cape. As she pulled back on the bow string and waited for the right opportunity to strike steadying her aim, my dad ran past her.

“Jesse now!” he yelled as I saw Chris's father, he looked just like Chris but bigger, he just wore black shorts and a tattered cape that rested over his left shoulder like the right half was torn off, he stomped his foot on the floor and raised his right hand as the ground shook, then my dad was launched into the air by a pillar of rocks. He took a deep breath and held it in, as the light of the sun reflected off of him I could see he was wearing a similar jumpsuit as my mom and a red cape but he didn't have a hood. 

Jesse turned the pillar into rock disks that he launched at the giant knocking him back a bit with each hit then my dad let out a roaring breath of fire as the giant stepped back more and began roaring in pain. On the way down Jesse pulled up a makeshift slide that my dad used to slide down. He pulled out a silver sword and sliced the right leg clean off. As he rolled out of the way the giant began to lose balance as my mom shot the arrow right in-between its eyes, the arrow then exploded upon contact and knocked the giant down. The second it hit the ground it got tethered down by four tethers that flew around him restraining the giant, they were two bright white tethers and two bluish water like tethers. 

Jane's parents, dressed with similar style to mine, black and yellow jumpsuits and white capes, but neither of them hooded, they had yellow eyes and pale grayish glowing skin. They turned to the other two “thanks for the assist, Nate and Sarah” I looked over to them and saw it was the king and queen of the Poseidon system, home of the water planet Nero. Nate wore a fancy blue trench coat, with navy blue pants and brown boots, both he and Sarah had similar skin to Jane's parents but it was clear blue and almost see through, they both had gray eyes. Sarah wore a nice blue Dress and was barefoot which I don't know how anyone could fight like that but she found a way. Nate bowed, “you're welcome Luke” Jane's mother turned to my mom “what was an Ancient doing in my city Ruby?” my mom got upset “excuse me?!” she replied as my dad got in-between them “Abby, why the hell would we know? We all took care of them in the war remember?” he stated. I stepped forward, “what's ancient?” i asked just before my parents both turned around “get to the ship John!” they yelled, I just kicked the ground and walked back to Jane. My parents grabbed me and pulled me away from her, and Jane's parents did the same with her, “hey! let me go!” We both yelled as we tried to reach for each-other. Every attempt failed and before I knew it I was on the ship watching Jane's planet get smaller and smaller as we went home. 

“John! Get up dammit!” I heard Jess's voice call out, shortly prior to getting slapped awake, I stood up fast looking at her with disapproval “really? again?! Why slap me??” I asked, “you weren't breathing John.. I was worried” Jess replied. I got up looking around and I noticed that there was a new building up and people were gathering around it, “what's going on over there?” I asked, pointing at the mass of people. Oscar and Jess looked at each-other and back at me “Sarah's burying Chris's body, and the people looked up to him as much as they did Oscar, they helped make that.. tomb.. they're paying their respects” Jess said as I got up looked at Jess “hey.. those houses?” I asked as she smiled “i wanted to see more explosions... it was just pure luck that I chose the abandoned houses close to the spot they attacked” she said. Oscar frowned “Jess.. not all those houses were abandoned” he said as she looked away avoiding eye contact with him, I shook my head in disappointment and we walked to the front of the mass of people one of them grabbed my hand and I turned to see this old man that looked like Oscar, “I'm sorry for your loss sir. John, I know you and Chris were the best of friends, practically brothers” he said.

I nodded and walked towards the casket made of ice that Chris's body was lying in. I put my hand on the casket and remembered that day we first met, he was a friend even from the start, he helped me plan my meetings with Jane instead of following my dad's orders and kept me from her. He always had my back, then I felt someone jump at me so i turned to notice Sarah hugging me, “thank the Ancients, I thought you were dead, Jess said you stopped breathing..” I smiled “I'm fine, I'm not dying till everyone involved in all this pays for everything, for my son, for Jane, and.. for Chris” I said.

“ever the guardian, huh John, no one hurts your family and gets away with it” Sarah said, I nodded in agreement, “and someone fished me out of the water, was that you?” I asked. “I'd love to take the credit but.. no it wasn't” she replied, I looked around “then who-” I began to say as I was interrupted “me, I saved you” I turned around to see a girl, a little shorter than me, she had light purple-ish skin almost transparent, she had bright purple eyes, long black hair, she had on a dark purple pilot's jumpsuit with black gloves that had the fingertips cut off, “my names Courtney Terr'es-ver, and I want to help your team with this war” she stated, I looked at her confused as she stuck out her hand to shake mine “that's probably not a good idea, and why do you look different from the rest of the people here?” I said, she just ignored my questions and walked into the nearest house. “I need to talk to you and your team John,” she said as she disappeared inside the house.

I just looked at Sarah, and she nodded “I'll find the others” she said as I went inside the house there were so many books and scrolls, but one caught my attention, there was a set of scrolls floating in mid air under yet another painting of my dad's old team. “those scrolls came from my home planet, your prophecy, john” Courtney said I turned to see her leaning against the door   
“What do you mean by prophecy?” I asked as Oscar, Jess, Sarah, and Kayla walked in. Courtney walked over to the first scroll and opened it. 

“The son of the tyrant of light, the creator of darkness, shall vanquish the evil that corrupts this universe, with the help of allies both common and unexpected you shall prevail.”

Courtney read aloud then looked up to see the confused faces. Sarah spoke up first “the creator of darkness part.. that freaks me out, is it saying John started all this? Or his father?” Courtney just shrugged her shoulders “don't know” Courtney said.

“you said these are from your planet, you're not from here are you?” I asked, she shook her head “nope” Courtney replied, Oscar stepped in more “you're a psychic, aren't you?” he asked. Courtney smiled “yes.. and nope, I'm the only one who was born without powers.. so they sent me here” she replied. “wait, why here specifically ?” Sarah asked, Courtney was about to speak when Kayla interrupted “one of your parents is from here aren't they?” Courteney just nodded in agreement. I just looked at everyone “but why banish her? Me and Jane had a child, mixed raced, Chris and Sarah were married, mixed race, why shun Courtney for being a product of mixed race?” I asked. I waited as no one answered, I was about to ask again when Jess spoke up “her people are one of the few who don't approve of mixed races.” 

I turned to Jess “did you know? My last pass-out I had a memory flashback, that giant we fought on luminous, it was ancient wasn't it?” I asked, she frowned “you remembered that day? You know Jane broke down when you two were separated.. I didn't know she loved you that much.” she replied. “Jess, answer my question” I replied furiously as she turned away “yes, it was the same ancient that both yours and Jane's parents fought that day” I looked at her with shock and disappointment then someone walked in “there's a big ship coming we need your help” he said as I looked at him “how big?” he looked at me confused “like it's completely visible but its barely at the edge of the system,” he replied. 

He ran out and I turned to the others, Courtney spoke up “we need to leave now” she grabbed the scrolls and painting and started walking out the door when I grabbed her “no, I'm not letting just anyone join us, it's dangerous and you don't have powers” I said as Kayla walked up to me “hey! What did I tell you?” she yelled, I looked at her confused. “what??” I asked, she turned to Courtney “I take it your choice of clothes is not just coincidence?” she asked, Courtney nodded “I'm a pretty good pilot.” Kayla smiled and turned to me “now, do you remember what I said?” I looked at her kinda afraid of how mad she's getting then I remembered.

I turned to Courtney “how would you like to be our pilot?” I said as she just nodded and walked out the door as she passed by Kayla I heard her whisper “thanks” Kayla nodded. “I did it more for me than you tho” Kayla said as she followed her outside. “John waite, what about the people here? We can't just leave them” Oscar said, I was about to speak when I heard a familiar voice behind me “leave that to me” I turned around to see Sean standing there looking kinda proud. “I thought you weren't supposed to be intervening” I said, Sean smiled “I said I've been making exceptions due to changes in the timeline,” he said as I looked around “you're saying something else has changed?” I asked as he nodded his head in agreement “I'll get these people to safety, I'd decipher those scrolls soon John, and ask the psychics about the Prometheus system” he replied. 

Before I could ask anything else everything went white then I was laying on the floor inside the Destroyer, I looked around and almost laughed, everyone was laying on the floor looking like we were thrown in here. Oscar was sitting against the wall like he was thrown against it, Sarah was lying near me with her head on my chest like if she was cuddling me, Courtney was all the way down the hall, Jess and Kayla were somewhere in-between us and Courtney, Kayla's head resting on Jess's lap. I got up slowly because I felt like I was bruised all over, “is everyone OK?” I asked, Oscar coughed “no, no just 2 more minutes, mother” he said waving his hand around like if he was drunk as I looked at him confused and Sarah started to laugh “I think he's OK,” she said.

Jess got up looking at Kayla smiling “you know if you wanted to bite me all you had to do was ask” she said as she winked. Kayla rolled her eye's like if to say “as if”. “hey, I noticed your coat doesn't fit you” Jess said as she winked at her again “not that I'm complaining but why keep it?” she asked, “someone I care about gave it to me” Kayla replied. Jess smiled “aww, who?” she asked. Kayla looked away in sadness “i don't know, I can't remember but every time I asked my parents they purposely changed the subject” she replied. Courtney looked at them as she got up “that was uncalled for Jess...” she said as Jess just shrugged her shoulders, winked at Kayla, and walked down to the barracks under the ship. Kayla looked at me “please tell me you're gonna start to assign rooms, I don't wanna be near her” Kayla said, I just smiled, I could hear Sarah laughing it was nice to hear her laugh for a change “just go wherever, I don't care” I said as she nodded and walked down to the barracks. 

Oscar just smiled “this is gonna be an interesting crew to work with,” he said as he walked down into the barracks, I smiled, turned around, and started to walk to the nav room when Sarah stopped me. “john, why don't you go down and get some rest?” she asked. I smiled “i would but I got too much on my mind, and if I didn't.. my rooms above the nav room” she looked away. “oh, that's cool” she said then looked down before continuing “am I allowed to see the room?” I looked at her confused “sure? It's not that no one's allowed in there it's just.. aside from Jane.. no one really just wonders in there” I said.

“oh, OK, well if I can't that's OK..” she said, “no, no.. it's OK, come on,” I said as I grabbed her hand and took her to the room, we walked in and was shocked to see Courtney in my room. She turned around “i hope you two weren't planning anything.. cause that would be wrong, for both of you” Courtney said smiling. It took me a while to realize what she was getting at “um.. no why..” I began to say when I realized again that she was in my room “wait..why are you In here?” I asked. Courtney waved a scroll in the air “since the scrolls tell your prophecy and the painting is of a team lead by your parents I thought you'd want them in here” she replied. 

“thanks” I said, Courtney just nodded as she walked out the door, I walked up to the painting, I saw Sarah walk up to a shelf with picture frames and she picked one up. I could tell she was sad, sometimes in sad times looking at photos of happy times makes things better, but only in the moment, when it starts to diminish, the sad feeling gets worse. “i wish we could go back to this day, if I had known.. there's so much more I would have said, more I would have done” Sarah said. I looked over and saw the picture, it was me, Jane, Sarah, and Chris, Sarah looked at me “do you remember that day?” she asked. I smiled “yeah, that was the day you got married to Chris” I said as I laughed and looked at the picture more “Jane cursed at me that day, she was mad that she couldn't fit into the dress she wanted to wear, since she was pregnant” i said as Sarah laughed “yeah, she was weird like that” I just nodded my head and looked out the big window. 

“I wonder how different everything would have turned out if she hadn't have lost the baby” I said trying not to remember that day, Sarah came up to me and leaned on my shoulder “hey, don't think like that, it may have driven you guys apart for a little bit, but in the end you still got together. Plus you still had a beautiful baby boy... it all worked in the end, don't bring yourself down over that” she said as I hugged her. “thanks Sarah” I said, she just smiled and looked out the window, “aren't you ever afraid something will smash that window and you'd just get sucked out into space in your sleep? I mean ninety percent of that wall is glass, is that even safe?” Sarah asked.

I smiled “nope”I replied. She just shrugged her shoulders “so what's next? How are we gonna stop this person, what was its name? Shadow?” I turned back to the window “we follow our only lead, ask the psychics about the Prometheus system. or we can check the reason behind the distress signal picked up by the lab on Nero coming from one of Terra's moons” I said as I heard the static from the comms turning on. “The Prometheus system is believed to be the origin point of the ancients, and Sean was right John if anyone knows more I'd be my people” Courtney said. Sarah and I looked at one another confused “how'd you know what we were talking about Courtney?” I asked, I heard her laugh “just making sure there wasn't any naughtiness going on in there. just trying to look after you two” she replied. I frowned “that's not funny Courtney” i replied, she sighed “sorry, should I plot a course to the Morpheus system? Or should I put the coordinates to Terra's moon?” she asked. Sarah looked at me, “John..” Sarah said and I just nodded, “Terra's moon, Courtney, then Morpheus system” I replied, “OK” she replied “starting route” she said before the comms went dead. 

Sarah looked at me and smiled “thanks” she said, I nodded and smiled at her “get Jess and meet me in the cruiser OK?” I said as she walked out of the room. I made my way to the cruiser to find Jess and Sarah waiting for me “so were going to check out the distress signal anyways?” Jess asked with a bit of disappointment in her voice. I nodded in agreement and waved my hand towards the cruiser door “after you” I said as Jess smiled and Sarah giggled. They walked in as I followed, I sat down and prepared the cruiser for flight as it detached from the destroyer. As we got close to the moon's surface the comms came on “John, there's a complex showing up on the moon schematics up ahead, it's on the dark side of the moon” Courtney said. 

“OK thanks Courtney, well head on over” I replied as the comms went dead. We flew over to the dark side of the moon and we immediately saw the complex, it was huge, it was shaped like a giant pentagon, it had another layer floating above the one on the ground and it spun. The place lit up most of the darkness making it easier to see everything around us, Jess walked up next to me “um.. John, where's the enemy's? Where's the trouble? The reason for the distress signal this place is giving?” she asked. I looked at her and back at the complex, she was right, “now that I think about it.. where's the people?” I asked. We landed on one of the open hangers and got out carefully, the whole hanger was huge, it could fit at least three cruisers, but it was also empty. 

No signs of life anywhere, I looked around and I started to notice that not only was there a lot of destroyed turrets and security surveillance, but every now and then the complex would shake. After the tenth shake I began to worry “is anyone else noticing the tremors?” I asked as Jess nodded and Sarah stepped forward “i was afraid to mention it.. I'm getting scared thinking about the possibilities” she said, I smiled, “stay here then, try to contact the Destroyer and see if you can get Kayla to make and bring some cages in case we run into any enemies.. we need answers and we need them alive to do that” I said. She smiled “thanks, and OK i'll get on that” she said, Jess walked up to her, took out a watch from her pocket, and gave it to her “was gonna give this next gen prototype I'm working on to John but since the cruiser can't connect to the destroyer you might need it more” she said and walked off towards the door. 

I smiled and followed Jess out the door, we checked every room and found nothing we were about to think it was nothing when we walked into a room that had another door on the other side of the room. I walked up to it and was about to open it when Jess stopped me, “wait, John come look at this” Jess said, I looked back and saw her looking at a holographic projection just like on Nero. I walked up to it and I couldn't believe my eyes, it was a dragon, it was being held in the center of the moon, you could tell it was injured. “wow.. I thought they were extinct..” I said, I kept looking at it in amazement when another screen popped up at the corner of my eyes, I looked to see this blur running around the room, it looked to be fighting this shadow, or maybe a ghost. 

I looked at Jess and she immediately opened her watch and connected to Sarah's “Sarah.. have you contacted the destroyer?” she asked, the static turned on “yeah, it took some time but I did, Kayla's on her way with a few impenetrable cages” Sarah replied. I smiled “impenetrable?”I asked with interest, Sarah giggled “yeah, her words, we'll see right?” she said as Jess smiled at me “yup, and for our sake I hope so, we found two potential enemies” I replied. “I'll tell Kayla to prep the cages the second she lands” Sarah said as the comm static went dead and Jess closed her watch looking at me “what now?” she asked. I smiled “well I wanna see the dragon, find out exactly why it's trapped down there, but we should start with the two in the room under the dragon” I said. she nodded as another screen lit up, we walked over to it in curiosity, “is it just me or are these monitors conveniently turning on one after another?” she said curiously. 

There was footage from the destroyed surveillance, a really fancy looking ship flew into the docking station, shortly after being fired on by the turrets the ship let out a pulse that blew them all up in one blast. The footage was struggling to keep a vivade image at this point but a small group of people came out of the ship, “are you sure we should be here?” said one of them as a girl in a long hooded cloak came out of the ship. “The captain gave me permission to change a certain course here on this station” she replied as we looked at eachother “John, that voice sounds like sarah” Jess said looking confused. “Why are you calling him captain? He has a name” the other said as Sarah giggled and looked up at the camera as some guy in a shiny biomechanical looking suit walked out behind Sarah, “i have my reasons” she said then looked over to the guy who just walked out. “You know what to do, find your brother and deal with the cameras” she said as he nodded and zoomed off out of the camera's view seconds before the camera got ripped off the wall by a gust of wind. We looked at each other in confusion, “did you notice the symbol on the ship?” Jess asked, I nodded “lets go, we need to talk to Sean after this” i said as we walked through the door, we entered the inner ring and saw that there was an elevator going down into the moon's center. 

We got into the elevator and went down “how far do you think this elevator goes?” Jess asked me as I looked around at the elevator room “I have no clue” I replied. We stood there for a bit in silence until Jess spoke up again “hey, you think Kayla is into women?” she asked me, I looked up thinking I couldn't believe I was having this conversation with her. “I'm serious John” she said laughing, “you know cause she's so attractive, and her breasts.. their big, I like that she wears that trench coat, it's so tight she doesn't even have the option to use a shirt. I just can't stop thinking about the things that I..” she was saying when I hit my head on the wall and cut her off “for the love of the ancients why?” I said. She laughed “john, why does it bother you? We both like girls, we both think the same, the only difference between us is our appearance, I have breasts and other stuff.. you.. well you don't” she said. I looked up at her and was about to respond when I heard a ding as the doors opened “thank the ancients” I said as I walked out the door. Jess started laughing as she followed me out, “yes!” she yelled as she ran past me, I saw her run towards an open crate and pull out another revolver that looked just like hers, just without the runes or the tech between the barrel.

She spun it and put it into another holster on her right side, I laughed “really?” I said “you already had another holster?” I asked. She smiled “I told you I’d hunt for a second one, I prepared in advance” she said smiling, I laughed and was about to say something when something zoomed into me knocking me into the wall with extreme force. I grunted in pain and looked at the thing that had me pinned against the wall, he was tall and slender, he was wearing a black and blue jumpsuit, had pale skin and spiky black hair, but his eyes were like that girls on luminous, Shockwave, they were glowing dark blue, and his skin was cracking around his eyes but the cracks went down his neck. “You've made a grave mistake coming here boy” he said with a deep demonic voice, but I couldn't help but notice his mouth glowed dark blue also, he was extremely unstable. “John!” Jess yelled as she pulled out her pistol and shot at the arm he was using to hold me up, he yelled in pain as she shot his left arm clean off his body. I fell to the floor as he fell on his knees holding his left shoulder.

I got up fast and punched him unconscious, then I saw this ghost like spirit start making its way to me, it had transparent black skin, you could see its skeletal structure, but it had a ghost tail instead of legs, it had no eyes but a very visible skull with sharp long teeth. It made an eerie screeching sound as it ran towards me, Jess tried to shoot it but it went straight through it barely missing my head, “sorry” Jess yelled as the creature turned to her then flew straight through the wall. “what the hell?!” Jess said looking around frantically, I picked up the guy unconscious on the floor and threw him over my shoulder, “come on” I said. We walked up the stairs towards the room with the dragon, as we walked in one of the cruisers landed, Kayla and Sarah walked out, Kayla helped me get the guy into the cell and close the gate. “will it hold?” I asked as Kayla looked at me with disappointment “yeah” she said. We walked out and I felt a ringing in my ear “you, boy, free me” said a voice that echoed in my ear, I looked up at the dragon, “you? You can talk? Telepathically?” I asked as its face came up to mine and I could feel its breath “yes” it said. 

I looked at it, it was injured, its wings were broken and damaged and it had scars everywhere, “i could, but you won't be able to leave you're injured” I said. It growled “then fix me”it said, I looked at its shackles, I noticed the two biggest ones were around its body, “i could carry you up to my ship using your shackles and my cruisers” I said. It growled again “so I can go from one prison to another? Why would I let you?!” it said, “prisoner? No, if you promise not to destroy my ship you won't be chained up, and once you're healed we can take you to where-ever you want to go and you can live freely” I said. It looked at me with interest “is that a promise?” it asked, Jess spoke up “where will we keep it?” she asked, I smiled and looked at her “the cargo hold should be big enough for it to rest comfortably” I told her then turned to the dragon “yes, that's a promise” I said.

The dragon snorted and nodded its head “very well then, you may proceed to take me to your ship,” it said, I nodded my head in agreement. We began to move the shackles holdings from the walls to the cruisers, then the spirit came back through the wall, as it flew towards me fast Kayla got right between it and me she reached out grabbing it by the neck. It squirmed as it tried to break free, “how did you know you'd be able to catch that?” I asked her, she shook her head, “I didn't,” she said as she walked it into the second cage and tossed it in as she closed the cage. “how do those cages work? can the ghost thing phase through?” I asked Kayla as she nodded in disagreement, “no, as long as the cage remains closed it will continuously emit a power disruptor, they won't be able to do anything” Kayla said.

I looked at her surprised, “okay now that that's done with, let's get these cruisers in the air, Kayla send word to the ship, tell them to open the cargo hold and wait for us,” I said as she nodded and got into the cruiser, as Jess followed she turned around and winked at me as she closed the door. I smiled as I walked into my cruiser with Sarah “what was that about?' Sarah asked, I laughed “oh nothing, just Jess is probably gonna annoy the hell out off Kayla” I said as I started the cruiser. Sarah giggled and we flew in unison trying to keep the dragon stable and okay, as we got closer I noticed Kayla's cruiser lost balance for a second just as the cargo hold door opened. I smiled “you think they're OK?” Sarah asked me, I just smiled and nodded, we waited in space for a bit until the dragon crawled its way into the cargo hold and we let the shackles go. 

Once the cargo hold doors closed we flew to the left wing and docked, as we waited for the clamps to hold the cruisers down Sarah looked at me, “john..?” Sarah asked, “yeah?” I replied , “when we go to the Morpheus system, since it's a long trip... can I stay in your room with you? I don't wanna be alone” she asked as I smiled, “yeah, sure” I said. The doors opened and we walked out, as we approached Kayla's cruiser door I saw three cages float out and in the last one I saw Jess sitting down with a cute pouting face that made her look like a kid. I laughed as I saw Kayla walk out “what happened?” I asked, she turned to me and I could tell she was pissed “she put the cruiser on auto pilot unexpectedly causing it to lose control for a bit as she jumped me and tried to kiss me as she fondled my breasts...” Kayla said as she started to blush then kept going “so I slapped her and threw her in there”. Sarah started to laugh and Kayla just walked off, I looked at Sarah “hey, i'll meet you there I gotta make sure those cages are gonna hold” I said, Sarah just nodded and walked off towards my room. 

I walked into the lab, it was kinda surprising how big this place was, I mean with the Destroyer being one of the biggest ships ever made I knew it had a lot of space but it still was surprising. On one side there were lines of tables with various tools just thrown on top of the tables, in the center we had this big table that had a lot of clamps and mechanical arms used to hold together stuff for welding or wiring, mainly for big projects. The other end of the room was empty, except for the corner close to the door I walked in from, that's where the cages were put, Kayla was looking at Jess with a pissed look as Jess pleaded to be let out. I laughed and looked at the cage with the ghost like being, it kept ramming the wall trying to phase through or at the very least break through. 

I smiled “settle down there crazy” I said as it rammed into the wall again and started to make this loud eerie screech, “shush!” I said as I hit a button and the sound stopped. It kept screeching but the sound wouldn't go through, “what's that? I'm sorry I can't hear you buddy” I said as it started to punch the cage furiously. “Hey, John stop teasing it” Kayla said and looked back at Jess as she looked at her with sad puppy eyes, “you promise to stop?” she asked Jess as Jess nodded in agreement. I smiled and looked at the other one, he was leaning against the cage giving me a smug grin. “what are you smiling at?” I said as he started to laugh and walked up to me “you think you have me trapped?” it said in a demonic voice, I smiled and looked at Kayla and Jess as Kayla opened the cage, Jess just smiled and let out a cocky evil laugh. 

I looked back at the guy in the cage “so is that like your voice? Or are you purposely sounding like that?” I asked ignoring his question. He laughed “I'm just waiting, soon when you're all vulnerable, i'll get out, and i'll kill you all before you can blink” it said in that demonic voice. I laughed, ignoring the sound of Kayla getting knocked on the floor “we'll see about that,” I said to him as he leaned back against the cage wall smiling. As I walked away I heard a slap followed by a loud thump then the weird steam like sound the cage makes when the doors closed. I smiled and kept walking towards my room, the second I walked into my room I heard the comms go off “plotting course to Morpheus system John, but it's a long way away even for light-speed so get some rest okay?” then the static went dead.

Sarah went and laid down on the couch and I smiled, “what are you doing?” I asked, she looked at me confused “gonna get some rest?” she said. I laughed “not there, you take the bed I'll sleep on the couch,” I said as she looked at me with sad eyes. “but..” she began to say when I interrupted her “Sarah, take the bed, it's non-negotiable” I said as she smiled “thanks” she said then she got up and walked over to the bed. I laid down and started to remember the times before all this, the first time I met Sarah, eleven years after her kidnapping, I was walking with Jane on one of our times together, her parents were meeting with Nate and Sarah so Chris managed to sneak us into their ship just after finding a way to her home planet so I could see Jane. We spent hours talking, laughing, but I could tell Chris was feeling like the odd man out. 

We made our way to a secluded village, it almost looked abandoned. We made a fire and sat around it, Jane looked at me then Chris and smiled “you know you two are so close that I sometimes think you're brothers” I laughed and patted him on the back “yeah he's my best friend, wouldn't trade him for any other” I said as she smiled then looked down. “makes me wonder if Sarah was still here... would we have been that close?” Jane said with a sad voice, I went over to her and hugged her “hey, it's OK, I'm sure you would have, and she's not dead, we'll find her” I said, she put her hand on my chest “i hope so” she said. “we will love, you have my word” I said and smiled as I saw her blush “love?” She looked at me with big puppy dog eyes. I smiled then kissed her and she let out a girly giggle I haven't heard in years as she swung her legs over mine and hugged me. I couldn't help but smile, She is always acting cute around me, I don't know what i'd do without her.

“guys..” Chris said, I laughed “I know sorry didn't mean to get all romantic with her around you” I said, he pointed at the sky “no, look” we looked up and saw a pod of some kind breaking orbit fast then crash land right on the other side of the house behind us. We rushed to the pod and saw this person attempt to climb out, when the dust cleared a bit more we saw it was a girl, she looked like Jane just with bluish skin, piercing blue eyes, and short blue wavy hair, but when the dust cleared completely we noticed something else.. she was nude. Naturally the first person to speak was Chris “wow..” he said with wide eyes. Jane walked up to her slowly “Sarah?” Jane asked as the girl stopped struggling to get out of the pod for a second, “Jane?.. is that you?” Sarah replied. She finally pulled herself out and stumbled onto the ground, Jane ran towards her as Sarah got up and tried to walk towards Jane but fell right into Jane's arms, Sarah looked up “Jane.. help” Sarah said as her skin began to glow and pulsate. Jane looked at me scared struggling to hold her up “John! We need to take her to the castle” she said as she tried picking her up again but couldn't “John help me, please” Jane begged as she looked at me worried.

I nodded and picked Sarah up, she was surprisingly heavy, we started walking towards the castle, it was weird honestly, holding my girlfriend's sister who just happened to be nude as we carried her through the blizzard that started to form outside along the path towards the castle. I couldn't look forward because of the blizzard but I didn't wanna look down at her either. “where the hell did this come from?” Chris yelled through the storm, I looked back at him and shrugged my shoulders as Sarah started to glow brighter. “John.. you think Sarah's causing this?” Jane asked scared, “I'm not sure love, but we gotta move faster..maybe Nate or Sarah might know how to help her” I replied, another weird thing, it's not that often when two people have the same name, at least not for us.

“john!” I heard Sarah calling me as I was shaken awake, I stood up fast “what? What's going on?” she looked at me worried “you stopped breathing for a good hour.. what's happening to you? Are you OK?” she asked worriedly. I smiled “i don't know what's happening, but I'm fine OK? Don't worry” I said, I heard a knock and turned towards the door to see Courtney and Oscar there, “yo, were here, let's get the info we need and figure out how to end this” I nodded. i got up and walked towards the door as Oscar grabbed my shoulder and whispered to me “i really hope you're not doing anything you'll regret” I looked at him pissed off “why is everyone assuming that?” I asked him. He just shrugged his shoulders and walked out the door as I followed, we made our way down to the bridge and I could see the planet in the distance. As we approached we were intercepted by small jet-like ships, they were small one manned ships with a lot of firepower. The cruiser's wings made a strange u-shape and the body was jet like, they had this dark-purple tinted dome where the pilot sat, and had large laser machine gun turrets on either side of the wings. They circled us then I felt this ringing in my head followed by a voice “this is the Alpha Squadron, Guardians of this planet, what is your purpose for trespassing” the voice said. 

“wow” Oscar said as he looked at me and Sarah “anyone else hear that voice?” they both said then they looked at each-other confused “You can hear it too?” they both said to each-other. I smiled as I saw Oscar and Sarah exchanging confused looks, “we all can” I said, I heard the voice again “respond or we will-” he began to say as another voice in the background cut him off “they might not be able to communicate like we do Quinn” I felt anger, or something, like maybe the other one sighed in disappointment. Then I heard the comms static like it does when you turn it on “there trying to connect John” Courtney said looking at me as if waiting for approval, I nodded “let them” I replied still holding my head in pain. “we are alpha-” the voice began to say as I cut him off “we heard all that we just didn't know how to reply, we're here to speak to your kind we need information on the Prometheus systems” I said, there was silence and I began to worry, then the static came back “I'll guide you down, we must speak, deviate from the course and we'll shoot on site” it said as Courtney gave me a concerned look, “wait, we can't land, this ship wasn't built for landing on planets, or fitting safely on a planet for that matter” I replied.

There was silence again but longer this time then the static came back and for a brief second I heard a deep sigh “may we board?” he asked, I looked at Courtney and she nodded “I'll prep the docking area” she said and I turned to the comm speaker “yes” I said “you may board”. Two of the cruisers flew up over the Destroyer and landed on the roof, you could hear the ships getting clamped down as the ship's connected to the hatches on the Destroyer. We all walked into the main hall where the elevator to the Docking hold is and waited for our guests, I heard footsteps from behind and I turned to see Jess and Kayla running over “What's going on?” Kayla asked, I smiled “why are you two late?” I asked, and I just saw Jess wink and made a movement with her mouth to insinuate biting.

I just heard Oscar whistle, “okay.. that's awkward” he said. “I thought you didn't want to be around her” I said to Kayla, she frowned “i don't, I spent most of the time running away from her” she said with disappointment in her voice. I laughed “most of the time? And the rest?” I asked as I saw her look down shamefully and muttered as she blushed “I was caught”. Sarah started laughing and fell over holding her side as I turned to Jess “guess the incarceration in that glass cage did nothing to your determination huh Jess?” I said as she just shook her head with a big grin on her face, then the doors opened and our guests walked in. they looked just like Courtney, just with one minor difference, they didn't have mouths. They were wearing black and purple pilot suits and a weird tech looking necklace, they looked around at us and focused on Courtney, “we will not discuss anything in-front of a mix breed” they both said, I realized that their voice came from the necklace, Courtney walked up and was about to punch them when I put my hand out to stop her. Before she could say anything I spoke up “this “mixed breed” has a name and she is a valuable member of my team, you are on my ship, so as long as you're here you WILL show her respect, are we clear?” they looked at each-other then at me and nodded “we'll do our best then” they both said.

Courtney hugged me “thank you, you didn't have to do that” she said as I smiled “anytime, and I did, I will not stand for discrimination and bullying on my ship”i replied. She smiled and walked off towards the bridge, Kayla tried to sneak into the barracks but took off like a bat outta hell the second she noticed that Jess saw her leave. Jess turned to all of us smiling and turned towards the barracks with somewhat of a spin then walked off after Kayla. Oscar passed me towards Sarah “I don't think that'll ever not be funny” he said and turned to look at Sarah “I'm hungry you wanna join me in the cafe and see what this ship’s got to eat?” he asked as she smiled as she followed him towards the cafe. I looked back at the two guests standing there, “okay... so the Prometheus system, what can you tell me?” I asked them. “Well, what do you know?” one of them asked, I started to think about that when the other one stepped forward, “it's the origin point of all of us, we came from a world of primitive beings, brought there and changed, that system is older than all the others”. 

I looked at both of them confused “that doesn't make any sense.. Why would Sean want us to go there? If it's the beginning and the ancients are extinct, then what does he expect us to find?” they exchanged surprised looks “are they though?” one asked. “are you saying they survived?” I asked, they just stared at me in silence, I was about to speak when I felt my head pulsing like someone was looking through my mind and I started to see flashes of the giant from my past and the dark giant on luminous then I heard them in my head “if he survived how can you look over the possibility of more surviving the war” then the flashes stopped, I shook my head trying to get the feeling out of my mind “can you not do that next time?” I asked. They just nodded “I need to find their home-world, do you know where the home-world is?” I asked, “no but there's someone who might, we need to find an.. ancient specialist, so to speak. Cassie she's someone who knows all there is to know about the ancients, if anyone knows where the planet is it's her” they said as I nodded in agreement. 

“we can take the cruiser to the planet” I said as I started walking off towards the nearest wing, as I approached the cruiser docks I saw Sarah waiting there, “what are you doing here?” I asked, she laughed “I'm going with you, I've always loved visiting new planets and... I've never been to this one, no one has, it's rare when someone is allowed on the surface” she said. I smiled “okay then, but there won't be much sightseeing you know” I said. She nodded and got into the cruiser, we got in and I prepared the cruiser for detachment, as I started the engines and got the navigation systems ready I turned to Quinn and his friend sitting down in the seats behind us “so what more can you tell me about Cassie?” I asked them. “she's shunned from the rest so she has a good chunk of the planet to herself” they replied, I rolled my eyes “what is it with you people and shunning? Is she another non-elemental?” I asked. 

“no, she.. experiments on herself, goes a bit too far with the technology she's so fond of” they replied. I was about to say something when I heard a thump and saw Sarah practically pressed against the window of the cruiser looking at everything with eyes wide open “wow” she said. I smiled, I heard Quinn laughing “your friend seems to get easily excited about the simplest things,” he said. I looked back at her and she had gotten back in her seat looking embarrassed “sorry..” she said. I laughed “Sarah, don't ever apologize for being who you are,” I told her as she looked at me and smiled. I smiled back at her and looked back at the planet's surface as we landed “besides who can look at something this amazing and not get excited to be here,” I said.


	4. The First Elite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These characters personalities are based of real people that are friends

The planet was as beautiful as luminous it had similar plants and life but the color was more on the dark end, It was a mixture of dark purple, dark blue, and dark pink. Even though the colors were dark, the essence of the plant life illuminating off of them made them look bright and vivid. It seemed that the whole planet was covered in plant life like a jungle planet. Where there were patches of open land we saw smallholding where the local people lived surrounded by a big wall and giant sentry guns at each corner of the wall around the holdings. When we reached the destination where Quinn claimed was where Cassie lived I noticed there was a small landing port “hey why is there a landing port if she's shunned?” I asked, “she hated the first year of being shunned. She stole a lot of items over the years trying to build a ship, from what I hear she longed to meet different people” Quinn replied. 

“I wouldn't blame her,” Sarah and I said. As we landed on the port we saw this tall skinny girl walking up to the cruiser, she was wearing black pants, a tight black long-sleeve shirt with a dark purple cape that had a short hoodie attached to it, the strangest part was her face. She had a mask on, it looked like the face of an elite but the eyes were glowing red, and she was twirling an ax as she walked up to the cruiser. “who are you? What are you doing here?” she said, but her voice was distorted, like she was using a voice-changer or something. I started to get up when Sarah stopped me, “John, what are you doing?” she asked, “I'm gonna go out there, and say hi” I said as I smiled and walked outside. “hi” I said as I waved my hand, she stopped twirling her ax and swung it with force, as she swung it the ax hilt glowed and extended as the blades also got longer. 

She kept walking towards me, “I'll ask again, who are you?” she said, I smiled “well.. for starters I'm not an enemy, so.. you can put that away” I replied pointing at her ax and just as I said that I heard an eerie familiar sound, I rolled my eyes and turned around to see one of those scout ships zooming in towards us “duck” I heard her yell, and as I ducked I turned to her to see her grab her ax with both hands, spin, and let it go. It barely missed my head as it flew by me, it gave off a weird sound like it was vibrating, I turned to see it go clean straight through the ship and split the ship in two. I was looking at the ship falling in pieces that I didn't notice the ax had made a u-turn and was flying back in my direction, “john!” I heard Sarah yell in a worried voice as she tackled me to the ground just in time. 

“ow” I said as the ax passed over us, I saw the girl stick out her hand as the ax flew straight into her grasp, all I could think was “that was awesome” I tried getting up but I couldn't move Sarah “um, Sarah, you can get off of me now” I said. She got up fast “oh.. right.. sorry” she said, I smiled “it's okay, and thanks” I said. Then I realized what just happened and turned to the girl “this is just a coincidence I swear” I exclaimed. She just laughed “see that antenna?” she said as I looked at where she was pointing and saw an antenna, it was made of the materials from the enemy ships, it was giving off the same dark aura as all the enemies we've fought, “its sending a distress signal to them, how do you think I get all my tech” she said as she looked at Quinn who was getting out of the cruiser “especially now since I'm unable to take trips to the Prometheus system anymore” she continued to say with some hatred in her voice. 

She turned to me and walked right up to me “so.. you're not an enemy?” she asked me as I just nodded in agreement, “good” she said, as she removed her mask her hair kinda waived in the wind. she had short purple hair that went down to her shoulders, she also had an unusual skin tone, it was like the me on inferno I saw briefly, whitish and semi-pale, she had purple eyes but unlike everyone else here, she had a mouth. She smiled at me “you seem shocked” she said, I just nodded and looked at her confused “you've been to the Prometheus system before?” I asked her ignoring her question, “yup, and I can take you if you want, want me to take you there?” she asked.

I nodded in agreement and she walked off “OK, i'll take you but I need to take some things with me come help me” she said. I followed her into her house, there was so much tech and weapons everywhere, it was almost as if she was preparing for war. “there” she said pointing at a robot “take that with you”. I looked at it and back at her “what is that?” I asked her, she looked at me with a surprised look, “it's a robot” she said sarcastically. I frowned at her and she rolled her eyes “it's one the ancients used to make, like worker drones, but this one was made for combat, for war” she said. I looked at it with interest “i found it on one of their planets” she told me as I looked at her shocked “planets? Plural? As in more than one?” I asked. She smiled “yeah, they had civilizations everywhere” she replied “now can you please carry that with you?” she asked, I nodded and walked up to the robot. 

I picked it up, it was surprisingly light, I walked out and took the bot into the cruiser, I put it down in the back and as I turned around I saw her walking in as five big teched out boxes were floating behind her following like a mini train. I gave her a confused look and she smiled at me “what?” she asked, I shook my head “nothing” I turned to Quinn “we're leaving, come on,” I said. They looked at the antenna and back at me “that needs to be destroyed,” he said, I was about to speak when Cassie spoke up, “no, just guard it, I have plenty of weapons left laying around, i'll be back for the less important stuff when were done on Prometheus” I just looked at her with a pissed look. She turned to me and looked at me with sad eyes “please??” she asked. 

I rolled my eyes and sighed “okay” I said as I turned to Quinn “guard it well be back soon” and I closed the cruiser doors, I sat down and started the engines. As we took off into orbit Cassie got up and walked up to me “so.. what do you hope to find there in Prometheus?” she asked me. I looked at her then at Sarah “i have no clue” I replied. Cassie laughed, “wait.. so we're just gonna go there and poke around? No plan? No reason to be there?” she asked me. I smiled and looked at the Destroyer as we got closer to the docking area “yup” I replied. She laughed “just my kinda mission” she said and sat back in her seat trying to look like a badass but ended up slipping off the seat “you didn't see that, okay?!” she exclaimed. I smiled “whatever you say” I said as the cruiser docked on the Destroyer, I looked at Cassie “OK, you can set up your tech and put away your stuff in the lab, Sarah can take you there, once you're done meet me and the others in the bridge so we can get going to the Prometheus system” I said.

Cassie nodded and Sarah patted her on the back as she passed “follow me” Sarah said, I looked in amazement as all the boxes and the bot started floating behind Cassie. Even though I already saw this it still caught me off guard, then I realized something “hey, Cassie, if you can carry all that like that, why'd you want my help back there?” I asked. I just heard her laugh and she kept walking. I rolled my eyes and walked over to the Bridge, as I walked in I saw Courtney and Oscar waiting there looking at me with curious looks on their face. I looked at both of them confused “what?” I asked. They looked at each-other and back at me “so, four go down and three come back, but one is new, what happened?” Oscar asked. I filled him in and got more confused looks “you sure that was a good call?” Courtney asked, “what is? Bringing her? Or leaving the other two?” I asked, “well.. I was meaning leaving them behind but now that you ask..” she replied as I gave her a disapproving look and she just looks away.

“I think what she means john is we barely know her and we're taking off on a whim to a location only she knows while leaving behind people defending a place purposely made to attract the enemy” Oscar said as he made a face like trying to say “you get what I'm getting at right?”. I was about to reply when Cassie walked in “do I get a say in my interrogation” she asked, I turned around, smiled at her then looked back at Oscar and Courtney. Oscar just shrugged his shoulders as Courtney just sat back in her chair and got ready to take off as soon as the coordinates were placed. I just rolled my eyes and looked back at Cassie “yes, you do, now where are we going?” I said, Cassie just walked up to the nav system and put in the coordinates, “there” she said and walked out of the room. 

I looked at Oscar and he just shrugged his shoulders again as i looked at Courtney, she just gave me a smirk, “take us there, please” i said as i turned to Oscar, she turned back and powered up the engines “meet me by the cruiser, Oscar” I said then walked out after Cassie. “hey!” I yelled as I ran after Cassie, she stopped and turned around with a pissed off look “what?!” she replied. I got shocked with her reply “are you OK?” I asked. She just looked at me like I was the most stupid person she had ever met “you seriously have to ask?” she replied and before I could speak she kept going “I get these things were fighting probably have you on edge but do you seriously think I'd set you all up for failure? That I'm your enemy??”. 

“no, I..” I began to say as I was interrupted by the sound of cannon fire followed by the ship shaking, and I just ran back towards the bridge. I was almost knocked off balance as Courtney made another “evasive” move, “what's going on?” I asked as I fell through the door. “this whole system is being protected by elite ships!” Oscar yelled while giving me a look as if to say “told you so”. “Courtney, take off towards the nearest moon, use it to loose them and cloak the ship, we'll figure out a way past them later,” I said, Courtney nodded and as I tried to stay on my feet I turned to Cassie pissed “I swear this Is just a coincidence, I'm not your enemy John” she said.

The second we cloaked and the firing stopped I grabbed Cassie by the arm then walked out, “ow!” she yelled as she looked at me angry, “hey, I said I'm not your enemy” she said as she pulled away, “then how do you explain this” I replied. She looked around frantically “i can't, but honestly John, if I was doing this to kill you all, why would I come along and risk dying with everyone else?” she replied. I was about to reply when I realized she had a point, “okay, let's get back to the bridge, we need to find a way onto that planet” I said, she nodded and followed me to the bridge. As I walked in I was joined by the others, “hey, what's going on?” Kayla asked, I turned to see the wide eyes of everyone looking at the massive fleet guarding half the system. “well.. do I really need to explain?” I asked and turned back to the window looking at all the ships then the planets I sighed “Cassie, which planet is the home of the ancients?” I asked “well..” Cassie replied, I scoffed and rolled my eyes “you don't know do you?” I asked with a pissed off attitude.

“John..” she began to say when I interrupted her “Cassie, this isn't a game, if we knew you didn't know much, if not anything at all, we would have planned more before jumping into potential death” I said. She just ran out of the room, “John what do we do?” Courtney asked. I started walking after Cassie “John?” Courtney asked, “analyze all the ships, potential weapons, shields, I want a full report of potential weak spots when I get back” I said as I ran out after Cassie again. It took me a while to find her, I walked into one of the empty rooms in the barracks and found her punching the hell out of the wall. “hey, what's wrong?” I asked as she turned around and I noticed she was crying “Cassie..” I began to say as she started to punch me, I just stood there, letting her punch me till she got tired, then I held her “did that help?” I asked. She just looked at me confused “why would you let me punch the crap out of you?” she replied. I smiled “it occurred to me when I saw you crying that, not only did I step out of line, I didn't properly handle the situation, I should have let you explain, I'm sorry,” I said. She smiled “thanks” she said as she wiped her tears off her face, then she leaned in and kissed me, I was shocked but I quickly pushed her away. 

“I'm sorry” she said hiding her face, “I shouldn't have..” she began to say when I interrupted her “hey, its okay, its fine” I replied. “it's just, I've... I've always wanted to do that” she said, I laughed and looked at her confused “do what? Kiss me?” I asked. She smiled “no, just kiss, my kind, they evolved without mouths, or.. other things, we talk telepathically, we procreate with our thoughts. We do everything that has nothing to do with romance, romance that every other race in this galaxy seems to have the pleasure of doing” she replied. My eyes widened “so the experiments you did to yourself.. you gave yourself a mouth?” I asked.

She just kept smiling “it's funny how you don't know much,” she said, “yeah, it did, but I didn't stop at the mouth, along with reversing the evolution to get that, I gave myself the ability to procreate like others. Plus I also went out of the way to make myself look like the people we all once were, the looks and perks of a good life along with the perks and extended life of being an alien” she said as I still continued to look at her confused “you mean human?” she looked at me confused as I kept talking “that's what I was told the race was called by the ancients.. the race we evolved from” I said. 

“yeah.. if that's the proper name, yes, I turned myself human..” she replied as I gave her a shocked look “so you do know where their home planet is” I said. She nodded in disagreement “no, every planet in this system shows massive evidence of life, but it was obvious that each and every planet was used for a different purpose,” she said. I smiled “OK, well how did you know that the way you look now resembles all our pasts, humanity, before evolution?” I asked. She smiled “because if they have that kind of information they probably had something to do with how we are now” she said, I nodded “and if that's a possibility then that planet is more than likely their true home-world” I replied. She smiled “hey, I know.. I know I overstepped with the kiss, I thought something was happening, or maybe i just took advantage of the fact that i could kiss someone, i don’t know, but I see it now, you lost someone didn't you?” she asked. I frowned “Cassie... please” I said.

Cassie frowned “my people are the few who are not with the Alliance John, especially since they approved mixed race living, so I don't know much of what went down but.. I can tell it was someone special” she said as I looked away. She walked up to me and hugged me as she kept talking “but we all need someone like that to make it through what we're facing, don't hate me for asking but.. if you realize I'm right and want someone to talk it out with, I'd be more than happy to listen,” she said. I smiled “I appreciate the offer, we should get back to the bridge and figure out what our next move is” I replied. “right..” she said as she frowned and walked out of the room, “Hey, I'm sorry if I said something that hurt you but I technically didn't reject your offer,” I said. She stopped and I thought she might have gotten mad, but when she turned around, I saw that she was smiling, “I hope you realize you gave me hope to get something I never thought I'd get to have” she replied. I had a feeling I was gonna regret that, I don't wanna act like I'm never gonna see Jane again when I know I will, and if I pretended for her, I'd just look like I'd done it for myself. She laughed “okay, let's go, we got things to find and an enemy to fight remember?” she said as she walked off, I nodded and followed her. 

As I followed her to the bridge I started to remember the rest of the time when I met Sarah, it was also the first time I saw Oscar. We had made it to the Castle and we were immediately confronted by Jane's parents and Oscar's parents “what the hell are you doing here?!” Abby asked me then she noticed who was in my arms, “Sarah?!” she yelled in joy, then she saw how her skin was glowing bright blue and pulsating like she was gonna blow as Sarah started to wake up “huh?” she said with a sleepy voice. Jane's mother went from happy to angry “what are you doing with my daughter?! What did you do to her?! Why's she glowing?!” she asked with anger in her voice as she rose her arm as if to slap me just as Sarah jumped up in-front of me “no, mom! They found me, they saved me” she replied as she fell on the floor, she was still very weak. 

Abby turned to Nate “why was she found on your planet? Like this?” she said, he looked at Abby pissed “why are you accusing me all of the sudden? Why would I take your daughter?” he asked furiously. She looked at him pissed “you know damn well why” she said as she turned to Sarah and scoffed “where are your clothes Sarah?” she asked, Sarah just froze, she turned slowly back looking at me, then Jane, then Chris and started to blush, she made a weird squeal then ran off towards the nearest room running straight into a kid walking towards us, she tripped, got up and bolted fast into a room then shut the door. “mom? Dad? Who was that?” the kid asked, Nate looked at everyone and turned to his son “no one Oscar go to your room” Nate replied as Oscar kicked the air and walked into his room. He turned to his wife “Sarah, can you go help her find something to put on, and check on why she's glowing” he asked as she nodded and followed Sarah's path. Sarah opened the door that Sarah walked into and gasped in shock, we all ran towards the room as she ran in. We went in to see Sarah passed out on the floor, she started to pulsate faster and the blizzard outside kicked up twice as fierce as before. 

“what's happening to her?” Jane asked worried, no one answered, Nate clapped his hands as he closed his eyes, his hands started to glow and he placed them on Sarah's stomach. He looked at his wife and you could tell he was slowly getting weak, “go get the healer Sarah, we must stabilize her” he said as she ran out of the room. Jane hugged me, started to cry as I patted her on the back and kissed her forehead “everything will be fine” I told her, then Jane's dad looked at Chris and I “get out now!” Luke said then turned to Jane “we need to talk about this later,” he said. Jane just got mad, grabbed me by the arm and ran out back towards where we found Sarah, “get back here now young lady!” Luke yelled, I felt like somehow I'd be blamed for this by him later. I started to hear arguing and I snapped back to reality. 

We had made it back to the bridge to find everyone yelling at one another, I stopped “hey!” I yelled and everyone stopped then looked at me with wide eyes “thank you” I said as I looked at Cassie. “Can you put in the information for the planet we think might be the ancient homeworld Cassie?” I said, she winked at me and walked up to the nav system. Oscar looked at Cassie and then at me “what happened exactly?” he asked, I ignored his question and turned to Courtney “what have you found?” I asked. “okay..” she said as she looked at Oscar, Cassie, and me “well... our cruisers guns, if powered by our engines can take out three-fourths of the fleet but will alert them to our presence and well loose cloaking power” she said. I looked out at the ships then the A.I. popped up out of nowhere in the center of the nav. system “may I suggest something John?” it asked as Oscar jumped off the desk he was sitting on. I laughed, I had forgotten about that thing, “yes what is it?” I asked it “what if.. we use half power to the guns and the other half to ensure we stay cloaked?” it stated. “It could work, but it'll lower the chances of taking them down” Courtney replied looking at me with confusion, I could tell it was gonna take some getting used to having the A.I. here. I looked at her with a serious look “how much?” I asked “only by one-fourth” she said. I looked back at the window “could you show me which planet is the intended target” I said.

Courtney started typing the coordinates Cassie gave her when the A.I. spoke up “certainly captain” and the part of the window that was facing the planet lit up making it look like the planet itself was changing colors. Courtney stopped typing, leaned into her chair, and crossed her arms “seriously?” she asked, I smiled and looked at the A.I. “ captain?” I asked it, I saw the eye turn from the lit planet to me “certainly, this is a ship is it not? And it belongs to you doesn't it?” it asked me. I just looked at the planet, Oscar got back up and looked at the A.I. “so... we're just gonna have to get used to the floating ball?” he asked as the A.I. turned to him “does it bother you Oscar? Would you prefer I download another image? Perhaps a face? A full body? A wolf head?” it started to say as Oscar looked at me scared, I smiled as the A.I. turned to me “or perhaps the face of the girl you seemed to enjoy kissing in the barracks captain?” I said as it turned into a floating holographic face of Cassie, Oscar laughed, as everyone looked at me “you kissed her?!” they asked, surprised as Cassie blushed and looked down “enjoyed it?” she mumbled curiously. I just looked at the A.I. pissed “no, the floating eyeball works just fine” I said upset ignoring everyone's question as it changed back.

“okay, so what if we used the guns to take out the half in front of the planet, and when their attention is focused on finding our general location we slingshot around the wreckage and towards the planet,” I said. Courtney looked at me with disappointment and I just gave her a stare as if to say “i asked you a question”. “It's risky,” Courtney said, Cassie laughed. “I like risky plans, especially when they work,” she said. I smiled “as do I, Oscar go with Cassie to a cruiser and wait for me, the rest of you get into the other cruisers and prepare for fire on my command” I said. The A.I. popped up again, “captain, I could remotely fire them all if you wish” it said as I looked at the others and they just shrugged their shoulders. 

I looked back at the A.I. “OK do that” I replied, Oscar nodded and walked out, Cassie followed him and winked at me on the way out. Sarah came up to me “John, I hope nothing else happened between you and Cassie, cause when you see Jane again, Cassie, like the rest of us will come back too, thanks to that medallion, and when that happens how will you explain this to her? Cause she will end up figuring it out on her own if you don't” she said then saw the pissed look I was giving her and frowned as she walked out. I looked at Courtney, she just smiled and nodded her head “she has a point John” Courtney said. I looked at her upset, “are we ready to do this?” I asked, she frowned “yeah, cruiser's guns are in position and the power has been rerouted” she replied while waving her hand around sarcastically pointing at random stuff out the window. “fire” I said, within seconds, every ship on the right side of the fleet went down, one by one. 

It was a pretty awesome sight, it was like watching fireworks, I could imagine the enemies frantically trying to figure out what's going on, the plan was going great, then the cloak failed. “Courtney, get the cloak back online and get us out of here” I exclaimed, she frantically typed, moved leavers, trying to override the systems and engines. “Courtney!” I yelled as I saw the glimmer from the cannons of the remaining fleet starting to charge “give me a sec” she replied. “Courtney we don't have a second” I yelled, I heard the engines turn on just as the fleet fired, “got it! John get to the cruiser now you're only gonna get one shot” she said as the Destroyer jolted towards the planet barely missing the enemy fire and cloaking itself yet again. I ran into the cruiser that Oscar and Cassie were waiting in, Cassie walked up to me and handed me a watch “here, Jess made you a watch like hers so you can communicate with the ship even when the cruiser can't. I also went ahead and added something else, you can now connect directly with the A.I. in case you need to talk to it directly” she said, I nodded and took the watch “thanks” I said. 

I strapped in and prepared the cruiser's engines for flight as the comms turned on “detaching the cruiser now, good luck John” Courtney said. It was a scary feeling that moment, we were practically flung towards the planet the second we detached, we were free-falling towards the planet's atmosphere for a couple of seconds when I regained the cruisers movements and barely moved in time to angle the cruiser to the right angle it needed to be to not blow up upon entry. I was amazed at what we saw as we broke orbit, these buildings were unlike anything I've ever seen before, they were advanced even for our standards “wow” I heard a voice from behind, Oscar, Cassie and I turned to see Sarah walking up to the front of the cruiser. “what are you doing here?” Oscar asked, Sarah just ignored him “look at all that, doesn't it make you wonder how our families managed to bring this all down in the war.. I mean sure there were two of each element in their team but still” Sarah said. We all looked at Sarah with interest “Well I'm definitely thinking that now” Cassie said, “my people seem to believe the white reaper is a big reason for all of this” Oscar said. “well.. only one way to find out” I said as I landed the cruiser on top of one of the buildings.

The second the cruiser touched the ground I felt that same feeling again I had on Chris's planet, the silhouette of a tall hooded reaper like being flashed in and out of my field of vision like I was seeing things. “you okay bro?” Oscar asked. That's when I realized I wasn't looking at the window I was covering my eyes, I looked up to see Cassie looking at me worried. I turned to Oscar “yeah..” I began to say when I also realized that the scenery around us was different from what I saw in the flashes, the place in my flashes looked like a desert, but this stuff here around us definitely wasn't desert “yeah I'm fine” I continued as I got up and walked towards the door of the cruiser. The doors opened and it was like I was in another universe, this stuff was ancient but yet still way more advanced than anything I've ever seen. The walls of the buildings had light running through making them look like giant circuit boards, I walked to the edge and looked down, the whole planet looked alive, connected, like it was one big bio-organic brain. “What the hell” I heard Oscar say, I turned to see him looking off to the right, when I saw what he was focused on my eyes widened. 

Not too far off the planet was changing like it was being corrupted, the light was turning darker in that area, almost blood red, in the distance you could see what looked like animals fighting each-other. “John, down here” I heard Cassie's voice echo, as I looked around I noticed there was an open door leading into the lower levels of the building. Me and Oscar followed the steps down “oh, look Cassie what's that?” I heard Sarah's voice echo, “no Sarah don't touch any-” she began to say but was interrupted by an explosion, the building shook. We started running down the steps to find Cassie doing her best to hold onto the collapsed wall from crushing Sarah who was unconscious, “sis!” Oscar yelled as he ran to pick her up. I ran to Cassie and took hold of the edge of the wall, “go help Oscar carry her out I got this” I said. She nodded and ran to help Oscar carry her to a safe distance, this crap was surprisingly heavy, I was having a hard time holding it up but once they were out I let the wall fall.

“hey you guys can find a way out, I'll keep an eye on her okay” Oscar said, we nodded and walked off. “hey, can you light up the room?” Cassie asked me, I smiled and snapped my fingers and my hand caught fire, she laughed “thanks” she said. We started to look around trying to find an exit when Cassie spoke up “hey, can I ask you something?” Cassie asked me as she felt the wall for hidden doors “yeah” I said. “how did you all put up with her? I mean I don't wanna sound rude but.. she reminds me of a kid” she said. I laughed and looked at Cassie “she.. she went through more than most people should when she was a kid, she has every right to act like that since she was stripped of the chance to when she was one” I replied. Cassie turned to me looking like she felt horrible for asking, “oh I didn't..” she began to say when I interrupted her “it's okay, I get why you had to ask, but she really knows how to be a reliable bad ass when it matters, and that's enough, hell she proved that the day me and Oscar met her for the first time” I said.

She looked at me confused, “i don't understand, isn't Oscar her brother?” she asked, I nodded “yeah but not blood related, she's Jane's sister but was adopted by Oscar's family” I said. “oh, and.. Jane, is that her name?” she asked me cautiously. I looked at her confused “what?” I asked her. She looked down, “the person you lost.. the person you loved” she replied, “Cassie.. don't” I said as she looked at me upset “OK” she said and went back to looking for an exit. “how exactly was she a bad ass then?” she asked, I smiled and I began to remember that day as I told her the story. 

I was running, well more like being dragged through the blizzard by Jane, I could see Chris running after us with Oscar close behind him. Jane stopped, I almost crashed into her, I was about to start an argument with her when we were surrounded by a big pack of ice wolves, these things were as tall as us and were commonly hunted by the people of this planet. “crap, we don't have our weapons” Jane said as she looked around for something she could fight with, three of them jumped at her but she slammed her fist on the ground sending out a massive wave of lightning that knocked them all out cold. But the one still in mid air when this happened ended up flying towards her and knocked her out. She went tumbling down the small hill we had just climbed with the unconscious wolf.

“Jane!” I yelled worriedly, I lit my hands on fire so I could see better and tried to go after her but was jumped by one of the wolves. I punched it off me and it whimpered in pain as my hand left a severe burn mark on it and started punching them as they jumped at me. One managed to pounce on me from behind and bit into my neck, I could feel the ice weakening me like venom. I punched it off me and fell on the floor sliding down landing next to Jane, just before another could pounce on me Chris landed on it causing the ground to shake and I heard what sounded like the bones of the poor wolf being crushed. He took out five of them, punching each one so hard that he broke their spines with a single punch but he soon was overwhelmed as well. 

Oscar jumped in and created ice spikes on the ground as he landed impaling three wolves in mid attack, it was awesome really seeing those ice shards slice clean through the wolves and they just hung over it. He shot ice spikes impaling a few before they could get to him but he was eventually knocked down by a few who managed to get behind him. Then out of nowhere Sarah ran in grabbing a long branch on the floor, jumped in the middle of the pack drawing their attention, and started spinning the branch using it like a staff hitting the wolves one by one hard and fast. She kept her pace never letting one touch her, they slowly circled her growling, they were getting pissed that they couldn't get to her, they circled slowly trying to look for a weak spot and jumped one at a time when they thought they had found one. 

They tried and tried getting madder by the minute, I could hear nothing but the sound of the branch smacking them and the wolves whimpering in pain by the impact. I was in awe at Sarah, she was so focused, the whole time she had her eyes closed. She was listening to everything, she struck at the sound of movement, it was epic, as the wolves got tired and slower as she picked up pace. The second all the wolves started to slow down severely and began to limp I saw her smile, she knew, without looking, staying in one spot she started to slowly spun herself keeping the branches movement at a pace four times faster than her own movement. With each hit I noticed something amazing, the sparkle coming off the hits, water, she was making water from the air with her attacks, and as she got faster the water amount grew until she had them all in a cyclone of water. The wolves started whimpering and squirming as they struggled to try to get free of the water that was drowning them. The second the whimpering stopped she stopped spinning the branch around her and spun it like she was twirling a flag right before immediately smacking one end against the floor then like nothing the water dispersed outward like an explosion sending the wolves flying in different directions.

She fell gasping for breath and started laughing as the water fell around us turning into snow, “are you okay” I asked as she laid down on the snow next to me, she smiled at me “yeah, that took a lot out of me.. I honestly had no idea I could do that” she said laughing again as she started looking around amazed. She put her hands up in the air feeling the snow fall on her hands, and looked back at me, I smiled at her “how did they fix you?” I asked, she giggled “it's a long story,” she replied. I smiled “at least they got you something to where” i said as I saw her blush and look away “yeah.. please forget what you saw OK? I'm really embarrassed” she said looking away. I laughed “OK, but you might have to really try to make sure Chris forgets” I said as she looked back at me all red “why?... do you think he likes me?” she asked, all shy. I smiled shrugging my shoulders and she smiled then looked back at all the snow falling, “I guess we're even know” she said smiling. I laughed, and thought “nope, compared to me just simply carrying you to the castle, I owe you, big time” but I just nodded and started looking at the sky.

“wow” Cassie said and I shook my head realizing I was now daydreaming “you really have a high opinion of her” she said. I smiled “she's a good person who is surprisingly well considering what she's been through” I said. She nodded in agreement, and laughed “hey, how does she even manage to talk to you all? I'd be embarrassed knowing that you all saw.. everything” she said, “she probably doesn't remember” I said as I moved my hand down a crevasse in the wall and heard a click. I looked to see the wall in the far end part open and looked back at Cassie to see her smiling “awesome” she said looking at the opening. Then she looked at me and said, “I'll go get the others you go check it out” I nodded as she ran back in the direction we came from. I walked in to find a big room with a holographic map of the whole galaxy in the center, as I walked up to it I saw lines forming connecting this planet to others marked as observation posts close to all the planets with life. 

Then I noticed a box in the center under the holographic display, I opened it to find a dozen orbs that were glowing and pulsing, it looked alive, like it was a box of hearts or something. “amazing” Oscar said as I turned to see him carrying Sarah “what?? no way!” Cassie yelled as she ran up to me and dropped down in-front of the box, she looked at them with wide eyes then looked at me “Do you know what this is?” she exclaimed. I just looked at her with a blank expression she laughed “that's a cute look on you, confused,” she said and blushed. “anyway... These are what I need to power that ancient bot I have in the lab, we need to get these on the ship” I smiled “all of them?” I asked, she frowned “please? I only need one to power it but the others could come in handy later” Cassie replied and I just nodded.

“wow! John look!” I heard Sarah's voice say, me and Cassie looked at each-other then at Oscar who was looking around frantically and confused. “over here” she said again, I turned to the other side of the room to find Sarah looking into a pod at the far end of a line of pods. “Sarah!” Cassie yelled as she ran to hug her “I'm sorry, and I didn't touch anything this time I swear” Sarah said. Cassie laughed “it's okay, I'm just glad you're safe” she said, I walked up to the pod and was shocked at what I saw. It was ancient, smaller than what most look like, and looked humanoid not giant-like. “is it alive?” Oscar asked, I just shrugged my shoulders, “can we get it on the ship too John?” Cassie asked, “I don't think that's a good idea” Oscar said. They both looked at me and I sighed “yes Cassie, but carefully get the pod onto the cruiser”.

She hugged me “I knew you cared” Cassie said, I laughed “about the ancient?” I asked, she squinted her eyes at me like saying, really dude. “Oscar help her get that into the cruiser, I'm gonna see if there's anything else here that can be of use or find any more info we might need” I said, he nodded and helped her detach the pod from the wall. Once it was mobile another door opened at the end and the pod started to make a sound like sirens as a small section popped up. I looked at it “that looks like..” I began to say as Cassie ran to the box of metallic hearts, shoved one into the slot as it sunk back into the pod and the sirens stopped. “I should have known I'd need external power to keep the stasis going,” Cassie said, slapping her hand on her forehead, I smiled and watched them take the pod out of the room. “john..” Sarah said with a worried voice, I turned around to see her looking at the other pods, as I walked up I noticed they were sabotaged, the glass was broken some of them had gunshot wounds on their foreheads. “What happened to them?” she asked me worriedly. I looked back at the door where Cassie and Oscar walked out from, “I think the better question is why that one was spared..” I said. 

“maybe this place has surveillance? Maybe there's a console nearby that can tell us what happened?” Sarah asked, I smiled and nodded “let's look around some more then” I said. We kept looking around but we couldn't find anything in that room so we walked into the other room to find a statue in the center of what looked to be the white reaper, but without the hood or the skull mask on, she looked a lot like my mother. “hey doesn't that look like..” Sarah began to say when I interrupted her “yeah” I said. “you don't think it could be? Do you?” she asked, I shook my head in disagreement, “no, not possible” I replied. We kept looking around, I found a log terminal that was still working, it only had one functional log, its title was my dad's name. I clicked on it but it wouldn't play, it needed a passkey but I didn't feel like spending hours looking for one or trying to crack it here. I connected the terminal to the Destroyers signal and downloaded it to the server, “hopefully Courtney or our new A.I. friend can crack the passcode from the destroyer.” I said, “what's that?” Sarah asked as I shrugged my shoulders “that's what I'm hoping to find out,” I replied. 

We kept looking around the room when Cassie and Oscar ran back in, “did you find anything else?” Oscar asked, “yup” I said as I walked up to another console “probably two things” I said. They walked up behind me as I turned on the console and it projected its contents like the console on Nero and Terra's moon, there were two readable labels, one was the security feed for the next room and the other was a list of ancient work sites. “oh! Oh! Look click on the list, maybe there's more functional stations on this planet” Cassie said, I was about to click on it when Sarah stopped me, “John what about the surveillance from the other room?” she asked me. I looked at them, “well it doesn't matter which one I click first cause I can always open the other file after” I said, they nodded in agreement as I opened up the log data for the other stations. “Wow, look at all those stations,” Cassie said with wide eyes. She then frowned “but only three seem to still be working... that's including the one where in..” she said with a sad tone. I smiled “you want to check the other two?” I asked her as she quickly grew a big smile “yes” she replied. I smiled and downloaded the coordinates on the watch before I backed out to the file menu, when I backed out the console blew and started to smoke as the display vanished.

I looked at Sarah who was frowning “now how are we gonna see the surveillance data?” she asked me, I looked at the console then at my watch, “let me try something,” I said. I turned on the watch and connected to the A.I. mainframe “how may I help you captain?” it asked me, “can you help us retrieve a file from a damaged console?” I asked it. “Yes I can try, put the watch as close as possible to the console and I'll work on it” It said. I kneeled down next to the console and extended my arm out, the watch projected a pulsating blue circle “attempting to connect captain” the A.I. said, it switched from pulsing to a blue loading circle “downloading all unseen data captain” it said. 

As the downloading got closer to finishing the A.I. alerted me to every five percent from seventy until it was done. “Captain I've loaded the files to the console in your room, it might take awhile to make sure it doesn't damage your console when you view them, I'll let you know when the tests run through” it said. “Thank you,” I said, “see you on the ship captain” it replied as the connection turned off and the watch closed. I looked at the others “we need to name it” Oscar said and Sarah laughed, “what?” Oscar replied, I smiled and turned to Cassie “ready to check out the other sights?” I said. She smiled at me “race ya” she replied as she ran off, I laughed “you'll lose” I replied as the rest of us chased after her, I passed her seconds before making it into the cruiser, as I sat down to catch my breath she sat down next to me gasping for air “no fair” she said. 

I smiled as I started the engines “I used to run with Jane all the time, she was the fastest person I've ever known, I've learned to be able to keep up with her,” I said with a grin as the others ran into the cruiser, they just laid down on the floor as we made our way to the next active station. This one was deeper into the world, it was a small station in between all the big massive buildings, it looked like just a house with a landing pad. I looked at Cassie and smiled, she looked disappointed, she looked at me “are you sure you're in the right place John?” Cassie asked. I looked at her with disappointment, “I'm positive” I said as we landed, I got up and walked out “ready to do some exploring?” I asked smiling as Cassie walked off past me and scoffed “nah, more like a quick peek through the door,” she said. 

We walked in to find what looked like a mini lab with a bunch of torture devices, we all looked at one another in shock then walked up to another console that immediately lit up with a folder for a large audio log. “John.. look” Cassie said as she pointed at the title in shock “turned trials, test subject Sarah Lumarah” Oscar read aloud, we looked at Sarah like if to ask permission, she just nodded in agreement and I played it. One of the few times I can say I wish I could be able to unsee something, Sarah was strapped to that table with so many needles and wires impaled throughout her body, she was crying and struggling to get free. “Are you sure we can trust the orphan to keep quiet about Sarah’s capture?” said a deep voice in the background, “who the Sin-care child? yeah, besides it’s been years if she wanted to she would have already” replied a familiar voice, there was silence before he spoke again. “keep struggling girl, it'll only make the pain worse, which to be honest is enjoyable to watch” said he said, i couldn’t figure out why it sounded familiar till he walked up to her, it was Jake, my demented brother. 

He got in her face, “please keep struggling” he said as he started to laugh, he pressed a button “let the trials begin,” he said with a smile on his face as this black mass started traveling down the tubes and into her veins. She started to scream in pain and squirmed furiously trying to get free. It was hard to hear, I've never heard such an agonizing scream in my life, he started to laugh again “it seems we can't change your elemental DNA without finding a way to activate those dormant genes that have yours” he said as he made a joyful giggle. “It seems we get to jump start your powers, oh the pain you'll feel until we find the right one, on the bright side once we do we'll know exactly which element that horrid mother of yours screwed behind her husband back” he said as he laughed.

“no! You lie!, my mom loves my dad, she'd never!” Sarah said as he laughed again and pressed another button and the wires began sending jolts of electricity through her body. She screamed and began to seize, “whoops” he said laughing “knew it, but I thought it would be fun to electrocute you anyways” he said as he got a syringe and stabbed her in the chest. Whatever he gave her made her stop seizing and she gasped for breath “please.. stop” she said in-between her crying. He started to laugh and flipped a switch “now for the earth elemental DNA” he said as she started screaming again. He purposely let it keep going to watch her suffer before turning it off, it went on and on for hours, he enjoyed every second of it, laughing watching her scream and struggling to stay alive after every experiment. He spent a good 2 hours per elemental DNA sequence, I couldn't watch anymore my fists were tightening, I could feel my nails digging into my skin.

I wanted to kill him, first Sarah, then my son, then Jane, and who knows how many others, I was about to shut it off when he injected her with the water elemental DNA sequence and she lost it, that scream was louder, “aha! I knew it!” he said, “that whore was screwing with the king of the water world” he said as her skin started to change and she started to glow, “no” he said with a worried tone. “start the transformation test now Jake!” said a deep demonic voice, Jake without hesitation turned the lever and started it up and she began to scream as the dark substance started coursing in again. 

Her scream started to echo and it sounded like there was more than one of her, then a blizzard picked up like in the castle on Nero, there was static and then for a second the feed came back and she was nude, floating, being lifted by the blizzard, her eyes were glowing like an unstable elements eyes glow, then the feed went black again “she's getting away stop her!” the demonic voice said. All we heard was tons of gun fire and people screaming, then the sound of a pod taking off at full speed, then nothing, the rest of the log was nothing but silence for twenty minutes. I stepped back with wide eyes and looked back to see the others looking scared at what they saw, we all looked at Sarah who was looking at the video with just as much shock as the rest of us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be the last chapter posted for now

**Author's Note:**

> Only the first 4 chapters will b posted if people start liking them more may b posted in the future


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